Financing employee healthcare: fusing the preferences of employees in decision-making

This study aims to explore the correlations of employee preferences for health care schemes and evaluated the cost implications of each of the available Schemes. The study applied a multinomial probit analysis on cross-sectional data from Taita Taveta University (TTU) in Kenya's coastal region. Cost-benefit analysis was used to rank alternative healthcare schemes. For triangulation of information, individual interviews were supplemented with key informant interviews. Two sets of factors, personal attributes of employees and the attributes of the health care provider, were found to drive employee preferences for health care schemes. Thus, the universities need to consider these attributes in their choice sets of health care schemes to gain employee support. The study was based on a cross-sectional survey that may not capture the dynamic elements in institutional management. Thus, future research may build panel data on the current one for further analysis. The study found that household characteristics and the perceived attributes of the healthcare providers are key drivers of the preferences. Thus, it is important to consider the characteristics of the employees (for example, age, family sizes, etc.) and attributes of healthcare providers before selecting a healthcare scheme for the workers This is a pioneer study on the choice of healthcare scheme for institutions of higher learning in Kenya. Universities are made aware of what informs employee's pre...
Source: International Journal of Workplace Health Management - Category: Occupational Health Authors: Source Type: research