The Partnership for Prevention was formed to encourage Fortune 1000 businesses to consider making workforce health a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) issue and adopt strategies to promote avoidance and wellness.
After several years of double-digit rate increases for health insurance, companies are realizing that among the best ways to slow the cost increases is to have employees take more responsibility for both costs and health options.
A majority of corporations surveyed feel that the best way for lowering costs is financial incentives to encourage employees to adopt healthier lifestyles.
Almost 100 percent of corporations surveyed say that healthcare costs will be a vital or meaningful concern over the next five years, as reported by a recent survey by United Benefit Advisors.
More businesss are adopting higher deductible health plans with HRA’s or HSA’S, health promotion programs, and expanded disease management (DM) programs for control ever-increasing health care costs.
Failure to deal with these issues can be disastrous for an business. Wayne Sensor, CEO of Alegent Health recently stated, “I think that we’ve built a healthcare machinery we cannot 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 issue in our nation”. Obesity costs California corporations billions of dollars each year.
Projected costs for 2005 may reach 28 billion dollars for direct and indirect health costs, staff member’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’s an economic crisis.” What’s frightening is that most people do not even realize that they’re obese, which is defined as only 20% above normal weight.
There is a excellent need for more education on weight and resulting illnesses, and the workplace is an ideal venue. Health Promotion education and programs can result in a meaningful return on investment and, if structured properly, can produce causes a very short period of time.
Although many businesss have attempted some form of health promotion program in the past, results from those efforts have been disappointing.
In many cases, the healthier workers participated for incentives, like gym memberships, but those who needed it most didn’t take advantage of the program in a meaningful way.
Corporations are looking at ways to encourage more workers to purchase into the wellness movement.
A recent webinar hosted by Human Resource (HR) Executive Magazine and presented by Carlson Marketing and Advertising Group titled, “Healthier Employees; Healthier Bottom Line – Engaging Workers is the Missing Link in Managing Healthcare Costs,” drove this point home.
This session provided actionable advice on how businesses are achieving higher impact with their wellness investments by focusing on employee engagement. It also highlighted how you can develop an Economic Engagement Model to forecast the potential impact for your organization.
Corporations can simply no longer ignore the issue of their employee’s unhealthy lifestyles and must act to engage them in a meaningful health promotion program to reduce medical costs, absenteeism and lost productivity.
Employees also benefit as they derive better health and greater satisfaction in both their personal and expert lives. the alternative is being caught in a non-competitive position and severely impacting the bottom-line of the corporation.
Corporate Wellness Companies