CSBJ Daily

Wellness and preventive measures have reached a tipping point with the nation’s employers.

That’s the word from a survey released by Benefit Resources, which explores employers’ health care strategies, health benefits philosophy and opinion, health plan management and consumer-driven health care.

More than 72 percent of employers have, or want, a wellness program with a health-risk assessment, and more than 59 percent have, or want, a chronic-disease management program.

Employers with 200 or more employees were 54 percent more likely to describe themselves as “fairly quick” to adopt wellness programs.

Other trends relate to employers’ perspectives about what the government’s role should be in improving the health care landscape. Just 26 percent of employers want the government to develop a taxpayer-funded universal health care system. Without regard to employee size or geographic region, more than 75 percent of employers surveyed felt the government should require hospitals and doctors to:

Publicly disclose pricing

Require insurers to publicly disclose actual discounted prices paid to providers

Mandate health care provider quality reporting