While most employers believe their employees can learn to become better health care consumers, few actually provide their workers the educational resources necessary to teach them, a new survey has found.
Nearly three-quarters of employers believe that their employees can become better health care consumers through employer-sponsored education, access to provider cost and quality information, and tools that help employees select the appropriate plan, according to a United Benefits Advisors survey of 1,674 employers representing a cross section of American business.
In addition, about half the employers surveyed feel that increasing employee cost sharing and consumer-driven health plans will also help employees become better health care consumers. In fact, more than 82% of employers either increased employee costs and/or reduced benefits this past year, the survey found.
But while most of the surveyed employers said they would like to provide their employees with access to online tools that will enable them to become better health care consumers, only about 5% of them currently do, according to the study conducted in February and March by Indianapolis-based UBA, a network of 138 benefits advisory firms.
For example, online access to claims status information and the administrator's customer service is provided by a majority of employers, but only about half of them also provide employees access to benefit plan documents and benefits forms online, and only one in five provide any hospital cost or quality information or side-by-side comparisons of their various plan offerings online.
The survey also found that even though between 60% and 80% of all medical plan costs are attributable to ongoing chronic conditions, only one in four employers currently include chronic disease management programs in their benefit plans.
Moreover, less than one-quarter of employers either have in place programs to help employees manage their specific health conditions or are planning to add them next year. And although half of all employers would like to have programs to help identify chronic or potentially serious conditions within their workforce, only a small number--just over 10%--currently have them in place.
The survey also found that 15% to 20% of employers showed no interest in providing wellness programs for their employees, and only about 25% of employers either have such programs in place or plan to add them next year.
About half of employers provide employees general medical information and offer an employee assistance program, but only about 25% offer onsite immunizations and prenatal and well-baby care services. Only 3.5% offer onsite mammograms, and 51.4% said they had no interest in ever doing so, the survey also found.
The survey encompassed responses from 1,674 employers, including 38% with 50 or fewer employees; 34% with between 50 and 199 employees; 22% with between 200 and 999 employees; and 6% with more than 1,000 employees. More than 16% of them were in the manufacturing business; 8% in wholesale or retail trade; 10% in professional, scientific or technical services; 12% in health care and social assistance; 12% in finance and insurance; 11% in public administration, education or utilities; 5% in information services, including the arts and entertainment; 10% in construction, agriculture, forestry, mining, oil and gas extraction or transportation and warehousing; and about 15% in other services including administration and support, waste management and remediation services.
Copies of the survey are available for purchase through the UBA Web site at www.benefits.com.
For reprints of this story, please contact Lauren Melesio at 212-210-0707 or email lmelesio@crain.com
