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Home / Washington Business - March 2006 / Wellness Programs: Healthy Employees Mean Health Care Savings for Employers |
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Wellness Programs: Healthy Employees Mean Health Care Savings for Employers |
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Written On: March 2006 |
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Written By: by Daniel Brunell |
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It's funny to watch a movie with an office scene from the 1970s. Not only for the ridiculous clothing that your kids now seem to find in style but how almost everyone in the office smoked like a chimney. It is incomprehensible these days that we not only allowed smoking at the workplace but our insurance wasn’t through the roof. Over the last 20 years, businesses have worked to decrease insurance costs through eliminating risks such as smoking in the workplace and implementing the automation of dangerous tasks. In order to further reduce health care costs, many companies in recent years have experimented with wellness programs.
The concept of a wellness program is simple. The more you encourage your employees to make healthy decisions with their lives, the more money you save on health insurance plans. This encompasses a wide range of options. These range from company-sponsored sports teams, on-site employee fitness centers, employer-paid athletic club memberships, rewards or surcharges for levels of fitness, mandatory medical checkups, health and nutritional information classes for employees, relaxation training, preventive medicine workshops, assisting in helping employees quit smoking, and even stress-management workshops.
The overriding theme of many of these wellness programs is education. The more that employees are aware of why they need to make healthy decisions in their life, the more likely they will. For example, if an employee is diagnosed with diabetes, a wellness program can provide the materials, classes and support to educate the employee about the do’s and don’ts of diabetes; thus saving time and money in medical treatment. By getting people to make the right decisions about their health, wellness programs benefit both the employer and the employee.
One of the more recent examples of wellness programs is Group Health Cooperative of Seattle. In February, Group Health's CEO Scott Armstrong and Medical Director Dr. Hugh Straley launched Group Health’s own wellness initiative.
"We started this program because we wanted to assist our staff to live healthier, more fruitful lives," said Suzanne Swadener, manager of medical support services for Group Health. "We are working on four central core issues: decrease the use of tobacco, better nutritional habits, weight management and stress management. The goal of this program is not to force people into this, but show them how to integrate healthy decisions into their lives."
Group Health hopes that this program will develop into a model which their members can use for their own wellness programs.
Another great advantage of these programs is that you don’t have to be a big company to do any of this. Any company of any size can take advantage of these programs to improve the health of their employees and lower health care costs. Even though we all can’t be like John Deere and install a full workout gym in our headquarters, simple things like a health club membership, a daily exercise time, classes in personal health, health-related materials, and talking up the the need to eat healthy fruits and vegetables are good basic things that small businesses can do to install a wellness program.
Even with all the great advantages of these programs, some have concerns. Many privacy advocates and civil libertarians are suspicious of the line being blurred between private lives and the workplace. Also, many are concerned about health-related screenings being used to judge employment. In response, there is protection under federal law which prohibits discriminating against workers because of health status to delineate the problem.
Yet, the people who do participate in these programs have found them a very rewarding experience. Many were already eating right and exercising or were planning to go on a diet and get in shape but have not found the time. These programs have also fostered closer, more productive working environments. Plus, the wellness programs have had a proven result in cutting absenteeism. According to an April 1993 issue of Human Resources Executive, Johnson and Johnson reduced their absenteeism rate by 15 percent within two years of introducing their wellness program. They also cut their hospital costs by 34 percent after just three years.
Another company with a well established wellness program is Boeing. Boeing has used the Internet as a facilitator with the Web site, www.BoeingWellness.com. More than 82,000 employees have registered to use the Web site for access to the Mayo Clinic's online world of health information and wellness tools. About 48,000 learned more about their personal health by taking the online Health Risk Assessment this past spring. More than 57,000 employees received a free flu shot in 2003. The Web portal also contains tips on drugs and supplements, treatment decisions, healthy living, and the different health programs and tools. You can even ask a specialist about diseases and conditions.
As health care costs continue their meteoric rise and put the squeeze on employers and employees alike, things like company wellness programs and other measures provide some relief.
But, other reforms are needed as well. If we don't change the trend of health care costs rising faster than the U.S. gross domestic product, company-provided health care will go the way of the typewriter, bell bottoms and the pet rock.
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