The Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH), founded in 1980, is one of the nation’s leading nonprofit business groups of mid and large, self-insured public and private employers. Their educational, research and community-based activities increase the value of health benefits and health care services to their more than 120 members. They conduct frequent benchmarking surveys to track employer trends and best practices.
In 2010, they conducted a preventive care benefits survey that revealed few employees took advantage of preventive care benefits offered by their employer. In fact, they found that 88% of employers thought employees lacked an essential understanding of the value of preventive care, with only 40% taking advantage of immunization and lifestyle management programs. In addition, 56% of surveyed employers thought their employees had little or no motivation to stay healthy.
A second survey on preventive care benefits was conducted in 2015. The survey revealed that some employers (average survey size = 5,000 employees) were seeing better utilization of preventive benefits (upwards of 60%), compared to small- to mid-sized employers who experienced less than 50% use. While smaller employers usually don’t have the resources to offer incentives, 53% of large companies in the survey indicated they did offer incentives. The survey also showed that many employers were not getting the engagement levels they had hoped for in offering preventive services. This can result in millions of benefit dollars lost each year on funding programs with low participation rates.
To respond to the challenge, MBGH received a grant to develop the Promoting Preventive Health Benefits Toolkit, which is provided at no cost to employer coalitions and employers across the country.