The Partnership for Avoidance was formed to encourage Fortune 1000 corporations to consider making workforce health a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) issue and adopt strategies to promote avoidance and wellness.
After a few years of double-digit rate increases for health insurance, corporations are realizing that one of the best ways to slow the cost increases is to have employees take more responsibility for both costs and health options.
A majority of businesses surveyed feel that the best way for decling costs is financial incentives to encourage staff members to adopt healthier lifestyles.
Nearly 100 percent of businesss surveyed say that health costs will be a vital or significant 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, wellness programs, and expanded disease management (DM) programs to control ever-increasing healthcare costs.
Failure to deal with these issues could be disastrous for an corporation. Wayne Sensor, CEO of Alegent Health lately stated, “I think that we have built a healthcare machinery we cannot afford. I think we’re 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 companies billions of dollars each year.
Projected costs for 2005 may reach 28 billion dollars for direct and indirect medical costs, employee’s compensation, and lost productivity. California has experienced among the fastest growing rates of obesity of any state.
As reported by California Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Belshe, “The obesity epidemic is more than a public health crisis, it is an economic crisis.” What’s frightening is that most individuals don’t even realize that they’re obese, which is defined as only 20% above normal weight.
There’s a great need for more education on weight and resulting diseases, and the workplace is an ideal venue. Wellness education and programs can result in a significant return on investment and, when structured properly, can produce causes a very short period of time.
Although many companys 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, like fitness club memberships, but those who needed it most didn’t take benefit of the program in a meaningful way.
Companies are looking at ways to encourage more staff members to buy into the wellness movement.
A recent webinar hosted by Human Resource Executive Magazine and presented by Carlson Advertising and Marketing 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 companies 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.
Businesss can simply no longer ignore the issue of their employee’s unhealthful lifestyles and must act to engage them in a meaningful wellness program to reduce healthcare costs, absenteeism and lost productivity.
Workers also benefit 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 corporation.
Corporate Wellness Companies