Worksite Wellness

As we know all too well health care is expensive. Health care-related
expenses for employers and employees alike are increasing and despite reform
are expected to keep going up well into the future. Is it possible to address
specific risk factors such as obesity or smoking to deliver a bottom line
benefit?

The answer is yes. A strategically designed worksite
wellness plan that cultivates engagement can deliver tangible benefits for an
employer and their employees. By encouraging healthy lifestyle choices it is possible
to moderate the use and cost of health care services, improve long-term health
and support an environment that enables employees to achieve peak performance.

Premeras internal efforts to implement an effective
wellness program began in 2004. The achievements and lessons learned during
that time have helped shape our understanding of what works. More recently,

Premera studied its own employees health care costs in 2008
and 2009 to gauge the effectiveness of its worksite wellness efforts over a
meaningful period of time.

Results were extremely revealing and showed that the average
monthly health care cost for those participants engaged in the wellness program
during that period decreased approximately 9 percent, or $288 annually. Not
only did costs improve, biometric test results revealed that people were
healthier based on measureable improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol and
triglycerides. Health indicators that measure 10-year risk of heart disease
(Framingham (Mass.) Heart Study, www.framinghamheartstudy.org) revealed
the percentage of high-risk individuals within the engaged group decreased from
12.6 percent to 9.8 percent while low-risk participants scores increased from
69.4 percent to 74.7 percent.

It was clear that participants were not only healthier; they
also recorded lower average annual health care costs than non-participants. Employees
with all five biometric measurements outside the normal range who
participated in the wellness program had lower average annual health care costs
than employees who chose not to participate.

The analysis revealed that above all engagement was critical
to success. If employees were actively involved in the wellness program and
achieved some level of success, their average annual health care costs were lower than those employees
who did not participate.

Based in part on these encouraging results, Premera formed
Vivacity in 2009 (www.vivacity.net) to develop, design and implement wellness
services for companies of all sizes that seek new and innovative ways of
achieving a healthier workforce by lowering the rate of their health care cost
increases through a comprehensive
approach to wellness. Utilizing our unique evaluation process, Vivacity can
design tailored solutions to help introduce and sustain worksite wellness,
including customized business plans that use predictive modeling and ROI
calculations to anticipate outcomes. Arguably as important as the analytics are
Vivacitys wellness advisors, who consult closely and directly with employers
to design and then implement a program that encourages long-term employee
engagement, participation and sustainment.

Worksite wellness is not a panacea. Launching and
maintaining a successful worksite wellness solution can be a challenge for
large companies in multiple states with the means to succeed; or alternatively,
a small company with only one location and limited resources. In both cases a
tailored worksite wellness strategy that embraces a companys culture as well
as its employees individual personalities can result in tangible financial as
well as health-related benefits. The outcome can be a statistically relevant
piece of the health care puzzle that reduces absenteeism and increases
productivity by improving employee health while helping to control the steady
increase of health care costs.

Dr. Dave Johnson is the president of Mountlake Terrace-based
Vivacity, a developer of workplace wellness programs administered by Premera.