Employee Health Care
Wellness Plans: What Actually Works
More-generous incentives boost participation and become an investment that grows.
By Martha Lynn Craver, Associate Editor, The Kiplinger Letter
December 24, 2009
- Comments
- Email This Article
- Print This Article
- Order a Reprint
Advertisement
Employers are making headway in using wellness plans to create healthier workforces, and that leads to lower costs. The most successful employers use significant incentives, such as lower health insurance premiums or cash rewards, to spur exercising and healthful eating. Many also offer on-site fitness centers and healthy dinners to go, as well as outreach programs to family members. All agree that visible participation by company leadership and strong communication about what wellness programs offer are vital to success.
Here’s what some of the more successful employers are doing:
General Mills has its cafeterias offer smaller portions at lower prices. Labels identify which selections are the most healthful. Food receipts show nutritional information. New buildings have attractive, open stairwells with changing art to encourage workers to use the stairs. The result: The percentage of employees with two or more health risks declined from 68% in 2005 to 29% in 2008.
Johnson & Johnson provides up to $500 in incentives for each worker who joins in its wellness programs, boosting the participation rate to 90%. The company also bans smoking at all sites and offers smoking cessation classes. The percentage of smokers fell from 12% in 1995-1999 to about 4% in 2007-2008. And the company has seen a cumulative savings of $250 million over 10 years.
Baptist Health South Florida offers free personal health counseling. Of the 500 workers who received one-on-one counseling for three straight years, medical claim costs dropped 30% in the third year, saving the firm $1 million.
IBM lets employees choose from among five cash incentives, for a maximum of $300 a year, to improve their health by dieting, quitting smoking, etc. Of workers enrolled in the smoke-free program, nearly 25% shook the habit. IBM estimates that the $80 million a year it spends on wellness programs yields a $191-million return to the bottom line.
How will Obama’s heath care bill affect YOUR small business? Find out by clicking here.
For weekly updates on topics to improve your business decisionmaking, click here.
>- Comments
- RSS
Permission to post your comment is assumed when you submit it. The name you provide will be used to identify your post, and NOT your e-mail address. We reserve the right to excerpt or edit any posted comments for clarity, appropriateness, civility, and relevance to the topic.
View our full privacy policy
Reader Comments (3)
Posted by: Escortrider at 12/28/2009 03:44:53 PM
Indeed, everyone not taking care of him(her)self is costing the rest of us plenty, especially in Medicare. This includes smokers, couch potatoes, heavy drinkers, overweight people, and others. This is not talked about much because it seems unkind to put the blame on people for their bad health, and of course many people are NOT to blame. However, this is a major factor in the high cost of health care in the United States.
Posted by: Brad Cooper at 12/28/2009 09:42:12 PM
Good examples. The key is to insure the program is personalized to each individual participant and not a "one size fits all" approach if looking for long term engagement and ROI. Our clients have seen similar results to those listed above due to such a commitment to a personalized approach. Thanks for highlighting some of these positive examples. Brad Cooper CEO- US Corporate Wellness, Inc www.uscorporatewellness.com
Posted by: jim at 12/29/2009 01:24:44 AM
My employer began what they called a "wellness program" too. The program consisted of a series of psuedo-physical exams and lab work to identify potential health problem areas/red flags and a $50 per pay period penalty on medical insurance premiums for those who did not participate. Thats it. No education, no incendives to improve health, just penalties for failure to provide the company access to the status of health. It is actually ironic that the "wellness" program is B.S. seeing as the company is the only of its kind in the area to allow smoking on the property and provides cafertia services almost exclusively devoid of healthier options commonly found in other places(most fast food provides overall healthier food).