Health Handouts : Employer Wellness Becomes CEO Problem – How to Reduce Workplace Health Expenses

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

Nearly 100% of companies surveyed say that health costs will be a critical or significant concern over the next five years, according to a survey by United Benefit Advisors. More companies are adopting higher deductible health plans with HRA’s or HSA’S, wellness programs, and expanded disease management programs in order to control ever-growing health care costs.

Failure to deal with these issues might be disastrous for a business. Wayne Sensor, Chief Executive Officer of Alegent Health recently stated, “I think that we have built a health 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 major economic concern 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 health care costs, worker’s compensation, and lost productiveness. 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 worksite is an ideal venue. Wellness education and programs can result in a valuable return on investment and, if structured properly, can produce results in a very short period of time.

Although countless 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 rewards and incentives, such as gym memberships, but those who required it most did not take advantage of the program in a meaningful way. Companies 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 Healthcare Costs,” drove this point home. This session offered actionable advice on how employers are achieving higher impact with their wellness investments by focusing on employee program engagement. It also highlighted how you can create an Economic Engagement Model to forecast the potential influence for your company.

Employers can no longer disregard the issue of their employee’s unhealthy lifestyles and must take action to engage them in a meaningful wellness program to decrease 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 organization.