ATTITUDES OF NEW YORK AREA SMALL-BUSINESS OWNERS AND EMPLOYEES TOWARD CURRENT HEALTH CARE COVERAGE REVEALED IN NEW SURVEY.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--November 2, 1994--Small-business owners and employees in the New York City area express lukewarm satisfaction with their current health care plans, according to a recent Yankelovich survey commissioned by ChubbHealth. Only 40 percent of the owners and 48 percent of the employees interviewed say they are extremely or very satisfied with their coverage; 46 percent of owners and 34 percent of employees say they are only somewhat satisfied.

Although employer dissatisfaction with coverage is considerable, slightly more than half of the business owners interviewed (53 percent) believe the level of satisfaction among their employees is higher than the survey reveals it to be. Of the 14 percent of employees who report being most dissatisfied with their coverage, not one of their employers thinks his or her employees are unhappy. Despite their complaints, the majority of the employees give their employers credit for trying to provide the best quality health care benefits.

Among other survey results are the following:

-- Participants give their health care coverage providers a "B" grade in the areas of cost, coverage, quality of care and customer service.

-- Most employees believe their plans do an adequate job of providing basic medical care but perform less well when it comes to providing specific treatments or tests or allowing visits to specialists. Fewer than four in 10 rate their plans' performance "excellent" on any aspect of care; only 31 percent believe their plans do an excellent job of providing access to quality physicians.

-- Employers and employees alike agree that quality of the doctors is most important in a health care plan.

-- More than 75 percent of the employees surveyed think their primary care doctors provide excellent care, but only half believe their doctors put the patient's interests first.

-- "ChubbHealth commissioned this survey to determine the health care coverage concerns and needs of businesses by receiving input from both those who select the plans and those who benefit from them," said Stephen A. Rogers, president of ChubbHealth. This information is extremely helpful to business owners, employees and of course, ChubbHealth, to ensure that those needs and concerns are addressed."

-- The 100 companies that participated in the survey are located in the Bronx, Kings, Nassau, New York, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk and Westchester counties. All have 50 or fewer full-time employees. Approximately 65 percent have traditional fee-for-service, or indemnity, insurance; 32 percent have some form of managed care plan.

ChubbHealth provides health maintenance organization (HMO) and point-of-service (POS) coverage for New York City's five boroughs and Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Orange, Putnam and Rockland counties through a network of more than 4,500 physicians and 34 hospitals. ChubbHealth is a joint venture between the Chubb Life Companies and Healthsource, a managed care company with more than a half- million members. -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: Complete survey results are available upon request to Boxenbaum Grates, Inc.

CONTACT: CHUBBHEALTH

              Stephen A. Rogers
              [phone]
                  or
              BOXENBAUM GRATES, INC.
              Gary F. Grates
              [phone]