Worksite Wellness ProgramsWorksite Wellness Programs

The Partnership for Prevention was formed to encourage Fortune 1000 businesses to consider making workforce health a CEO issue and adopt strategies to reward prevention and wellness. After several years of double-digit rate increases for health insurance, businesses are realizing that one of the best ways to slow the cost increases is to have workers take more responsibility for both costs and health choices. A majority of businesses surveyed feel that the best way for lowering costs is monetary incentives to encourage workers to adopt healthier lifestyles. Nearly 100% of businesses surveyed say that health costs will be a vital or important issue over the next five years, according to a survey by United Benefit Advisors. More businesses are adopting higher deductible health plans with HRA’s or HSA’S, wellness programs, and expanded disease management programs in order to control ever-increasing medical care costs. Failure to deal with these concerns might be disastrous for a company. Wayne Sensor, Chief Executive Officer of Alegent Health recently stated, “I think that we have built a medical care 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 costs are becoming the big economic issue in our nation”. Obesity costs California businesses billions of dollars each year. Projected costs for 2005 may reach 28 billion dollars for direct and indirect medical care costs, worker’s compensation, and lost productivity. 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% 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 important return on investment and, if structured properly, can produce results in a very short period of time. Although many businesses have attempted some form of wellness program in the past, results from those efforts have been disappointing. In many cases, the healthier workers participated for incentives, such as fitness center memberships, but those who needed it most did not take advantage of the program in a meaningful way. Corporations are looking at ways to encourage more workers to buy into the wellness movement. A current 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 Healthcare Costs,” drove this point home. This session offered actionable advice on how businesses are achieving higher impact with their wellness investments by focusing on employee engagement. It also highlighted how you can establish an Economic Engagement Model to forecast the potential influence for your company. Employers can simply no longer disregard the issue of their employee’s unhealthy lifestyles and must take action to engage them in a meaningful wellness program to lower health costs, absenteeism and lost productivity. workers 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 company.