May 20 2010
RedBrick Health today released preliminary findings from a national independent survey of benefits decision makers at large to mid-size U.S. companies.
“We've built our entire business around proving employees can and will engage in their health”
The independent industry survey commissioned by RedBrick Health included telephone interviews with 181 large to mid-size employers across multiple industries and U.S. geographies. In addition to quantifying engagement rates for numerous health management and wellness programs and top barriers to health engagement, RedBrick Health's Employee Health Engagement Survey identified data-driven markers for health engagement success.
Early Findings
Most striking about the early survey results was the employee engagement data relative to the primary vendor administering the health management and wellness programs. Programs surveyed included, but were not limited to, health risk assessments, biometric screenings, telephonic lifestyle coaching, telephonic disease management coaching and online health coaching.
Employers using an independent company as their primary vendor experienced engagement rates on average 13.9 percentage points higher than employers using a health plan as the primary vendor - representing an 83 percent engagement rate improvement. Furthermore, employers managing health management and wellness programs internally (no primary vendor) experienced engagement rates on average nearly 8.2 percentage points higher than employers using a health plan.
Consistent directionally with other third-party studies, the Employee Health Engagement Survey found that employers offering health management and wellness programs for more than two years; employers setting goals, regardless of achievement; and employers offering any amount of incentive experienced noticeably higher employee health engagement rates.
RedBrick Health will publish full results and data from its Employee Health Engagement Survey in an upcoming research-based white paper.
"We've built our entire business around proving employees can and will engage in their health," said Kyle Rolfing, chief executive officer for RedBrick Health. "These preliminary survey findings confirm engagement rises when employers commit themselves to a plan that includes quantifiable goals, multiple engagement opportunities and a fair system of financial accountability tied to individual choices and actions. The data also suggests that working directly with an independent vendor, rather than relying on resources from the health plan, leads to dramatically higher rates of employee engagement. This finding validates our assumption that employees are far more willing to engage when the program comes from an un-biased independent entity rather than their health insurer."
SOURCE RedBrick Health