Vivian Wilkinson, a commission analyst with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, doesn’t have to go far when she works out: An on-site gym and workout room allow her the opportunity to attend hardbody or core blaster classes during lunch, or consult with instructors about personal fitness.
Wilkinson, 47, says the gym and BCBSLA’s other fitness programs, like blood pressure screening and quarterly check-ins with wellness coaches, make it easier to maintain her weight and stay healthy.
“I’ve seen a lot of changes from when we didn’t have the wellness program,” says Wilkinson, who has worked for BCBSLA for 25 years. “I find when you go down to the gym for 45 minutes and work out, you come back to your desk refreshed and a better worker.”
And, the company is banking, a less expensive worker, too. The gym might be the most tangible manifestation of BCBSLA’s four-year-old comprehensive wellness initiative, but it’s part of a larger, sweeping program that incentivizes healthy behavior to help drive down claims costs and keep employees productive.
Nationwide, sophisticated, highly monitored wellness programs are on the rise as companies do more to keep employees fit and improve the health of those with pricey, preventable diseases.
“This trend has been going on for a while, and it will continue to do so,” says Kerry Drake, president/CEO of Wright & Percy Insurance. “Health care is no longer an HR issue; it’s an economic issue with far-reaching impact across the organization.”
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, chronic, often preventable diseases like heart disease, cancer and diabetes are responsible for seven of 10 deaths in the U.S. annually. Most disturbing to employers, those illnesses account for 75% of the nation’s health spending.
But, Drake says, only about 5% of employees are filing most of the claims. On the flip side, however, another 15% haven’t filed any claims. That leaves a majority of workers whose health status might be genuinely influenced by worksite wellness programs.
“If I’m an employer,” Drake says, “I want to make sure that the remaining 80% don’t become sick.”
Prevention, therefore, has become the mantra for a growing number of companies. In 2008, Woman’s Hospital totaled $11 million in health claims expenses, a huge hit for the self-insured employer. The cost prompted a serious look at wellness programs, says Donna Bodin, the hospital’s director of human resources.
Annual employee physicals in 2008 revealed that 51% of the workforce was considered obese, so Woman’s instituted incentives for staff members to exercise and lose weight. The hospital marked walking paths inside and outside buildings, added a workplace Weight Watchers program and marked foods in the cafeteria with the weight loss program’s point system.
Moreover, Woman’s provided financial incentives for each pound an employee lost. The hospital also offered a $3,500 stipend toward bariatric surgery for employees who were unsuccessful losing weight through exercise and nutrition; the surgery is now offered by Woman’s and typically isn’t covered by insurance.
Within the program’s first year, the number of obese employees fell to 34%, Bodin says, and unscheduled absences decreased by 10,000 hours, the financial equivalent of about $217,000.
While Woman’s offered financial carrots for shedding pounds, BCBSLA offers employees preferred premium health insurance rates if they complete certain aspects of the company’s comprehensive wellness program, including attending an annual health fair, one-on-one wellness coaching and goal-setting, quarterly monitoring, completing an online health risk assessment, undergoing an annual screening appropriate to their age and gender, and attending one educational program each quarter.
The company has seen 98% participation in the wellness program, says Eileen Wilcox, BCBSLA’s director of human resources.
“We’re trying to address illness at an earlier stage,” she says. “We know there’s a lot in your health status that’s controllable.”
BCBSLA’s practice of enabling employees to buy down payroll deductions is a growing trend, Drake says.
“This is a big part of our future,” he says. “We’re going to see more employers saying, ‘We’re going to let you buy down your deductions if you do certain things.’”
The motivation for creating an incentive-rich environment stems from the difficulty many companies have in encouraging employees to participate in comprehensive wellness programs.
An annual survey by the National Business Group on Health reports that the No. 1 obstacle to improving employee health and reducing health costs is low levels of employee engagement.
Drake agrees, citing the example of a large regional employer with a mostly male workforce whose average age is 41. When the employer offered to reduce the cost of monthly premiums by 10% if employees completed a health risk assessment, only 40% agreed.
Industry trends suggest that however unpopular they might be among some employee demographics, personal health risk assessments aren’t going away. In fact, they are considered to be among the most effective means of gathering data that drive future wellness-related decisions, says Quinn Banquer, who as BCBSLA’s health and wellness program manager works with employer groups.
Health risk assessments glean information about smoking, diet, frequency of exercise and stress levels.
“You assess your health risks as a company, and you get educated on what your numbers mean,” she says. “Then you can better decide what resources and information you want to bring into the worksite based on what you’ve learned. It gets you to an aggregate level.”
As for cost, there’s no question that comprehensive wellness programs require an investment on the part of companies just as health insurance premiums are expected to increase an additional 5% to 7% because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which Congress passed in March.
But Drake maintains that companies will see a return on their investment within two years, and that the programs assist in not only reducing long-term health care cost, but in increasing short-term productivity and employee satisfaction.
“It’s not going to happen overnight, but it’s going to build a culture of wellness,” he says, “and it’s going to put employers back in control.”
