The Partnership for Avoidance was formed to encourage Fortune 1000 businesses to consider making workforce health a CEO issue and adopt strategies to promote avoidance and wellness.
After several years of double-digit rate increases for health insurance, businesses 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 reducing costs is financial incentives to encourage workforce to adopt healthier lifestyles.
Nearly 100% of corporations surveyed say that health costs are going to be a critical or meaningful concern over the next five years, as reported by a recent survey by United Benefit Advisors.
More corporations are adopting higher deductible healthcare plans with HRA’s or HSA’S, wellness programs, and broader disease management programs to control ever-increasing healthcare costs.
Failure to deal with these issues can be disastrous for an business. Wayne Sensor, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Alegent Health recently stated, “I think that we have built a healthcare 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 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, staff member’s compensation, and lost productivity. California has experienced among 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’s frightening is that most individuals do not even realize that they are obese, which is defined as only 20% above normal weight.
There is a great need for additional education on weight and resulting illnesses, and the workplace is an ideal venue. Health Promotion education and programs can result in a significant return on investment and, when structured properly, can produce causes a very short period of time.
While many companys have attempted some form of health promotion program in the past, results from those efforts have been disappointing.
In many cases, the healthier staff members participated for incentives, such as gym memberships, but those who needed it most didn’t take benefit of the health promotion program in a meaningful way.
Businesses are looking at ways to encourage more staff to buy into the wellness movement.
A recent webinar hosted by Human Resource 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 corporations are achieving higher impact with their wellness investments by focusing on worker engagement. It also highlighted how you can create an Economic Engagement Model to forecast the potential impact for your organization.
Businesss can simply no longer ignore the issue of their staff member’s unhealthy life choices and must take action to engage them in a meaningful health promotion 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 specialist lives. The alternative is being caught in a non-competitive position and severely impacting the bottom-line of the company.
Wellness Proposals