Employer Wellness

Ten Steps Toward Strategic Wellness Programs

The Wellness Program management world is evolving quickly. Each month, there are new research findings that support the premise that Wellness Programs and disease management have a long-term impact on healthcare costs.

Many big companies that began Wellness Programs three to five years ago are showing savings in health, disability, and workers compensation costs. Small to mid-size companies are watching all this and wondering where to start with wellness.

Getting  executive management support and budget approval is among the challenges at the beginning of a Wellness Program. This is the case because Wellness Programs could be expensive, averaging $150-300 per staff member per year in big companies.

Most of the savings aren’t realized for a number of years. This long-term investing is hard for companies on the move.

The key to success for Wellness Programs is to take a strategic approach. Here are ten steps to consider when beginning a Wellness Program.

1. Begin with  senior management. Without  senior management support, a wellness strategy can fall flat. Begin with the health of your executive team and discover your wellness champions at the top of the organization.

2. Analyze the problem. Look at your healthcare claims and analyze the trends. Which conditions are driving your medical, disability, and workers’ compensation claims and which are modifiable? What’s worked and what hasn’t as a result far? What is the long-term impact of doing nothing?

3. Hold an initial wellness meeting. Invite your key stakeholders both inside and outside the company. Ask your broker to facilitate the meeting and invite key health providers including health, disability, Staff Member Assistance Program (EAP), fitness, and occupational nursing.

Review claims and utilization data and identify key areas of concern. Look at current offerings and see how they can be tailored to the needs of the population.

4. Consider both healthy and unhealthy workers. Since 85% of claims are typically attributed to 15% of claimants, it’s essential to reach those with the most expensive conditions while also reaching people  who are at risk for developing preventable diseases in the future.

Voluntary wellness programs like lunchtime wellness seminars miss many of the individuals  who need them most. Consider programs that are population-wide or target intact workgroups. Wellness incentives help but do not motivate everyone.

5. Be sure to set short-term objectives for the wellness programs. Be sure to set some realistic short-term objectives based on your key areas of concern. Are there any plan design changes that could’ve an immediate impact on spending? Are there some programmatic actions that could’ve immediate results?

6. Find out what staff members are thinking. Hold some focus groups to determine where individuals  are with wellness. What’s working? What isn’t? How much interest do individuals  have in the Wellness Programs? What obstacles and barriers are staff members experiencing when they try to change behavior?

7. Make sure you’ve a high-impact Worker Assistance Program (EAP). Your first wellness dollars should go into upgrading your Worker Assistance Program (EAP). A highly utilized Worker Assistance Program (EAP) can provide a foundation for all your future wellness activities.

A good Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a trusted link to the hearts and minds of employees. at no additional cost, the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) can provide needed follow-up coaching and personal attention for employees who are working on modifiable health behaviors or involved in disease management (DM) programs.

Nutritionists, fitness, pregnancy, and stress management experts are all part of a high-value Worker Assistance Program (EAP).

8. Be sure to set three to five year objectives for health care savings and measure them. Get help from your broker and insurance carrier help you on long-term objectives for your health, disability, and staff members compensation plans.

Establish program metrics that will help you to measure ROI. Go beyond participation rates, completion rates and program satisfaction. Measure changes in readiness, changes in behavior, and changes in risk factors. Establish rigorous methods to measure health care savings over the long term.

9. Make certain to set goals for organizational health. Consider the more intangible advantages of a wellness program and quantify them whenever possible. Include worker turnover rates, cost of new hires, worker morale, benefit satisfaction data, and corporation of choice issues in setting goals. Establish ways to measure success in these areas.

10. Add specifics to your short and long-term plan. Include a program strategy, a communication strategy, and an incentive strategy that’ll fit with your corporate culture. Focus on integration of related components along a health continuum with communications that are focused, simple, and human.

Establish a budget that includes key components like consumer education, wellness, health risk (assessment|appraisal}s, and regular biometric screens.