Company Health and Wellness : Corporation Wellness Becomes CEO Problem – How to Reduce Workplace Health Expenditures

The Partnership for Prevention was formed to advocate Fortune 1000 organizations to consider making workforce health a CEO problem and adopt strategies to promote prevention and wellness. Following several years of double-digit rate increases for medical insurance, organizations 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 organizations surveyed feel that the best way for decreasing costs is financial incentives to advocate workers to adopt healthier lifestyles.

Nearly 100 percent of corporations surveyed say that health costs will be a vital or valuable concern over the next five years, according to a survey by United Benefit Advisors. More corporations 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 healthcare costs.

Failure to deal with these problems could be disastrous for a organization. Wayne Sensor, Chief Executive Officer of Alegent Health recently stated, “I think that we have built a medical 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 organizations billions of dollars each year. Projected expenditures for 2005 may reach 28 billion dollars for direct and indirect medical expenditures, 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 significant return on investment and, if structured properly, can produce results in a very short period of time.

Although a myriad of companies 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 rewards and incentives, such as gym memberships, but those who needed it most did not take advantage of the program in a meaningful way. Businesses are looking at ways to promote more workers to buy into the wellness movement.

A new 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 provided actionable advice on how employers are achieving higher impact with their wellness investments by focusing on employee engagement. It also highlighted how you can create an Economic Engagement Model to forecast the potential effect for your company.

Employers can simply no longer ignore the concern of their employee’s unhealthy lifestyles and must take action to engage them in a meaningful wellness program to reduce health costs, absenteeism and lost productivity. staff members 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 business.