Making the Case for Primary Care Transformation

Consumer Attitudes about Employer Health Plans

The Watson Wyatt's second survey of American workers and their attitudes about employer-sponsored healthcare programs is attached below. The results were generated from responses of 2,487 full-time U.S. employees of large, nongovernmental companies who participate in their employer-sponsored health plan.

Page 10 of this report includes a couple of key statistics about people who self-report that they have a "primary care doctor." Specifically, respondents who say they have a primary care doctor are nearly 2.5 times more likely to have had a preventive healthcare screening than those without a primary care doctor (76% vs. 31%). Also, workers with a primary care doctor are more likely to have taken a health risk assessment (27% vs. 21%), have had a biometric screening (20% vs. 8%) and to have used a weight management program (20% vs. 12%) than those without a primary care doctor. Those are compelling differences to employee benefit managers who are looking for as many ways as they can find to improve the use of preventive and primary care services.

Watson-Wyatt: Employee Perspectives on Health 2008-2009