Health Care Survey Reveals Interesting Stats

10 Sep

Posted by admin as Daily Contact Lenses

Hewitt and the National Business Group on Health’s survey reveals five significant insights into how workers and their dependents view health care. In order to prepare their corporate health care plans, it is vital to understand the results of the survey. Help for prescription medication is high on the list.

In spite of the fact that workers say they know how to get healthy, many aren’t taking action to do so. Most (84%) think making smart choices in every day life leads to excellent overall health, and just about three-quarters (72%) believe good health is a consequence of getting regular preventive care. Only 46% of the workers surveyed reported doing a “great” or “good job” of regular working out and only about half of the workers think they do a “great” or good job” of eating healthy. To assist with the high cost of prescription drugs, most employees surveyed ranked prescription program assistance extremely high.

Involvement in health programs is low, but satisfaction is high. Involvement in many employer provided health programs isn’t as high as many employers would like to see, even though workers and their dependents report that they know what they need to do to get and stay healthy. Biometric screenings are the most popular programs with online health information tools and health risk questionnaires following closely. Stress management programs and employee assistance programs (EAPs) were the least popular, with just nine percent participation in each. For workers that had dependent coverage, a prescription program was the number one satisfying benefit.

Internal motivators can be just as effective as financial ones. Frequently, employers assume that providing monetary incentives for participating in programs will increase participation. Citing that it is “the right thing to do”, close to half of all workers surveyed would complete a health risk questionnaire Twenty-nine percent would participate in a HRQ for an incentive and almost the same number would complete it if there was a penalty. In addition, 44% of the employees surveyed said they would be willing to take part in a wellness program furnished by their employer because “it is the right thing to do”.