Workers want more health care control

HR Magazine, Jan, 2008 by Kathy Gurchiek

U.S. workers at large employers prefer a more collaborative role with medical professionals when making health care decisions--a change from the "just fix me" attitude of years past, a new survey finds.

More than 70 percent of 1,558 workers insured through an employer- or union-sponsored health plan think patients have a responsibility to learn about the costs for treatment options and make an effort to verify that a recommended treatment is necessary. Even more think their employers should be involved in providing them with health information.

Faced with making a decision about treatment, 90 percent of those surveyed prefer to consult sources beyond their doctors, the National Business Group on Health (NBGH) survey found.

Employees most want to know about the medicine--what it does, possible side effects--and about treatment options, with 78 percent wanting to collaborate with their doctors in their treatment decisions, the survey found.

However, 53 percent of workers think that the available medical information is too difficult for the average person to understand, although they also don't think that's an excuse to trust their doctors blindly.

They also use Internet web sites (68 percent), their health plans (67 percent), friends and families (66 percent), the media (61 percent) and pharmaceutical package inserts (59 percent) as information sources.

Slightly more than half have used their employers as information sources by utilizing employer-provided links to web sites of medical professionals, medical schools and hospitals, the survey found.

Employers also step in by providing tip sheets, question lists, coaching and other programs, such as rewarding healthy lifestyles with discounts on insurance premiums, said Helen Darling, NBGH president.

"If we can get people to stop making themselves sick" because of poor lifestyle habits, Darling said, "they won't need to go to the doctor but once a year."

--Kathy Gurchiek is associate editor for HR News.