Ohio Employer Health Survey Prepares for Launch

The Ohio Family Health Survey team has begun development on its first Ohio Employer Health Survey (OEHS) and plans to put it into the field in early 2009.

The 2009 Ohio Employer Health Survey will examine employing firms in regard to health care offerings and other characteristics. The main topics for the OEHS include health benefit structure, the effects of health care costs, employee health assistance offerings, employee trends such as sick days, employee utilization of benefits and firm demographics (e.g., size of firms, annual revenues, geographic location, and industry type – such as manufacturing, service, or commercial).

The OEHS will seek to have a sample size (approximately 2,500) that enables reliable analysis on these issues in all of Ohio’s demographic regions – Appalachia, rural non-Appalachia, metropolitan and suburban. These data will be used to determine the overall and regional burdens health care benefits place upon Ohio businesses of all sizes (very small, small, large and very large). Particular attention will be placed upon variations of health benefit offerings between small firms (<51 employees) and larger firms.

Additionally, as a companion survey, these data will be matched against the 2008 Ohio Family Health Survey to examine information provided by households concerning employer-sponsored insurance, health benefits and other economic data. It is expected that the OEHS will be completed by June of 2009.

The survey development, data collection, analysis and reporting of findings is projected to cost between $700,000 and $900,000 to complete. Financial support is being sought for implementation of the OEHS The Ohio State University will serve as the fiscal agent for the project, allowing for the possibility of drawing matching federal funds on the private contributions. Contact Bill Hayes at 614-307-1714, Tim Sahr at 614-224-4950 x 307, or Jerry Friedman at 614-292-3856 for more information.