Millennials have the highest rates of wellness programme participation

A research report by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald & Associates has highlighted that with the emergence of bespoke digital health services, millennials are reshaping the way in which care is delivered, both in acute settings and at home.

The company has found that millennials surpass the number of Baby Boomers and Gen Xers who remain satisfied with health plans (56%) and remain keen to explore different options and choices.

Additionally, millennials lead the way to embracing new products and services, such as walk-in clinics (30%), whereas only 14% of baby boomers have utilised this service, alongside 18% of Gen Xers.

However, with regards to building relationship with Primary Care Providers (PCP) the differences in importance for Baby Boomers and Millennials are startling.

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Whilst baby boomers have increased faith in traditional services, where the group believes it to be essential for a doctor to have detailed knowledge of a patient’s medical history (96%), this has therefore led this group to make healthier decisions upon speaking with their PCP (80%).

On the other hand, millennials scored higher on believing that primary doctors lack the medical expertise for complex health issues (39%) and many rely on themselves, rather than a medical professional to make key decisions regarding their healthcare needs (68%) and undertake research to look at various health care options.

With this in mind, millennials have also become the biggest market to participate in wellness programmes. 64% of millennials have visited an on-site clinic, 33% have received counselling in some form and over 60% have had biometric screenings.

Furthermore, the group has embraced digital services, such as telehealth. Increasingly busy lifestyles have made digital tools and services grow in popularity, where up to 40% of millennials have classed telehealth to be an essential service, in stark comparison with 27% of Gen X’ers and 19% of Baby Boomers.