Employer Wellness

The Partnership for Prevention was formed to encourage Fortune 1000 employers to consider making workforce health a CEO issue and adopt strategies to encourage prevention and wellness. Following several years of double-digit rate increases for health care insurance, employers are realizing that one of the best ways to slow the cost increases is to have staff members take more responsibility for both expenditures and health choices. A majority of employers surveyed feel that the best way for lowering expenditures is financial rewards and incentives to encourage staff members to adopt healthier lifestyles.

Nearly 100% of companies surveyed say that health expenditures will be a essential or important problem over the next five years, according to a survey by United Benefit Advisors. More companies are adopting higher deductible health insurance plans with HRA’s or HSA’S, wellness programs, and expanded disease management programs in order to control ever-increasing medical expenditures.

Failure to deal with these issues could be disastrous for a employer. Wayne Sensor, Chief Executive Officer of Alegent Health recently stated, “I think that we have built a healthcare machinery we can’t afford. I think we are choking the economic engine of America.” In his October 2005 newsletter, Dr. Andrew Weil stated, “I think rising health- care expenditures are becoming the primary economic issue in our nation”. Obesity expenditures California employers billions of dollars each year. Projected expenditures for 2005 may reach 28 billion dollars for direct and indirect healthcare expenditures, worker’s compensation, and lost work rate. California has experienced one of the fastest growing rates of obesity of any state.

According to California Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Belshe, “The obesity epidemic is more than a public health crisis, it is an economic crisis.” What is frightening is that most people do not even realize that they are obese, which is defined as only 20 percent above normal weight. There is a great need for additional education on weight and resulting diseases, and the workplace is an ideal venue. Wellness education and programs can result in a significant return on investment and, if structured properly, can produce results in a very short period of time.

Although a myriad of organizations have attempted some form of wellness program in the past, results from those efforts have been disappointing. In many cases, the healthier staff members participated for incentives and rewards, such as health club memberships, but those who required it most did not take advantage of the program in a meaningful way. Businesses are looking at ways to advocate more staff members to buy into the wellness movement.

A recent webinar hosted by Human Resource Executive Magazine and presented by Carlson Marketing Group titled, “Healthier workers; Healthier Bottom Line: Engaging workers is the Missing Link in Managing Health Care Costs,” drove this point home. This session offered actionable advice on how organizations are achieving higher impact with their wellness investments by focusing on employee program engagement. It also highlighted how you can set up an Economic Engagement Model to forecast the potential effect for your corporation.

Employers can not ignore the concern of their employee’s unhealthy lifestyles and must take action to engage them in a meaningful wellness program to reduce health expenditures, absenteeism and lost productivity. employees also profit as they derive better health and greater satisfaction in both their personal and professional lives. The alternative is being caught in a non-competitive position and severely impacting the bottom-line of the employer.