Corporate Wellness Incentives

Corporate Health Promotion Programs are proven to improve productivity and lower medical care costs.  For a business, that makes a difference in the bottom-line. Today, more than 81% of America’s businesses with 50 or more workers have some form of Corporate Health Promotion Program with the most popular being exercise, tobaccos cessation classes, back care programs, and stress management. Most organizations offer Corporate Health Promotion Programs simply because they think the benefit is worth the cost. Yet business leaders continue to ask themselves how to control huge annual increases in medical insurance premiums and medical care costs.

For many corporations, medical costs can consume half of corporate profits or more. Some employer’s look to cost sharing, cost shifting, managed care plans, risk rating, and cash-based rebates or incentives. But these methods merely shift costs. Only Corporate Health Promotion Programs stand out as the long-term answer for keeping workers well in the first place.

Corporate Health Promotion Programs are an example of medical care reform that works. Results from America’s finest corporations, summarized here, are reason enough to consider offering Corporate Health Promotion Programs.  This investment in your most important asset – your workers – can have a positive impact on your bottom-line.

Corporate Health Promotion Program Statistics:

Providence Everett Medical Center, a member of the WELCOA, in Everett, Washington, saved an estimated 3 million or a cost-benefit ratio of 1 to 3.8 over 9 years of an outcomes-based Corporate Health Promotion Program. By offering financial incentives ($250 – $325) to workers who meet specific organizational and worker health initiatives the Corporate Health Promotion Program continues to meet cost containment expectations in the area of medical care use, sick time, injuries, while improving health habits and self-care practices.

During the first 4 years of the Corporate Health Promotion Program there was a 28% average reduction in medical care utilization compared to nine other Providence hospitals that were used as a control group.

Du Pont saw that each dollar invested in their Corporate Health Promotion Program yielded $1.42 over two years in reduced rates of absenteeism costs at Du Pont Co. (Well workplace Gold in Delaware). Absences from illness unrelated to the job among 45,000 blue-collar employees dropped 14% at 41 industrial sites where the Corporate Health Promotion Program was provided, compared with a 5.8% decline at 19 sites where it was not.

The Travelers Corporation claims a $3.40 return for every dollar invested Corporate Health Promotion Programs, yielding total corporate savings of $146 million in benefits costs. Sick leave was decreased 19% during the four-year study. In addition to improving the overall health of 36,000 workers and retirees by decreasing poor health habits and increasing good ones, The Travelers realized cost savings by decreasing the number of unnecessary visits to a doctor and emergency rooms. In a similar but smaller study, members of a Travelers fitness center Corporate Health Promotion Program were absent from work significantly fewer days than non-members.

The Corporate Health Promotion Program at Reynolds Electrical & Engineering Company, based in Las Vegas, cost $76.24 per worker during the two years it has been in operation. Over half of the 1,600 workers participated in the Corporate Health Promotion Program. Participants significantly lowered cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and weight and experienced 21% lower lifestyle-related claim costs than non-participant. Resulting savings: $127.89 per participant in the Corporate Health Promotion Program with a benefit to cost ratio of 1.68 to 1.

Superior Coffee and Foods, a Bensenville, Illinois-based subsidiary of Sara Lee Corporation, attributes impressive results to the success of the company’s broad-based Corporate Health Promotion Program. Superior showed 22% fewer admissions to a hospital, 29% shorter hospital stays, and 42% lower expenses per admission when comparing costs for this division’s 1,200 workers with costs for other divisions. Long-term disability costs were down by 40%.

With medical costs per worker at $6,000, nearly twice the national average, Union Pacific Railroad introduced their Corporate Health Promotion Program to its 28,000 workers, mostly union and blue collar, in 19 Western and Southern states. Beginning with a modest medical self-care initiative at an annual cost of $50 per person, the Corporate Health Promotion Program achieved a net savings of $1.26 million. In addition, a voluntary Corporate Health Promotion Program to help workers decrease health risks projected a cost-benefit ratio of 1 to 1.57 after one year. Employees in a treatment group decreaseed their risk of high blood pressure (45%) and high cholesterol (34%); others moved out of the at-risk range for weight problems (30%); and 21% stopped smoking.

Average medical costs of high-risk Steelcase workers- those whose lifestyles include two to four health risks such as tobacco use, little exercise, overweight- are 75% higher than those of low-risk workers. But high-risk workers at this Grand Rapids, Michigan-furniture manufacturing company who improved their health habits through the company’s Corporate Health Promotion Program and became low risk cut their average medical claims in half thus lowering their medical insurance costs by an average of $618 per year. If all high-risk workers (20% of the total worker population) in one location changed their lifestyles to become low risk, the projected savings could total $20 million over three years.

Employees at Berk-Tec, a small manufacturing company in Lancaster County Pennsylvania, learned self-care techniques and decreaseed their company’s medical care costs in one year. By using a self-care guide, the 938 workers and their family members made smart medical decisions and saved $21.67 per employee and dependent a nearly 18% reduction in costs. By combining reductions in doctor visits and emergency room use, the business saved $39.06 per employee a 24.3% decrease in costs over the previous year.

A medical claims-based study of 72,000 people insured through 285 Wisconsin school districts found a reduced demand for medical services among those with access to Corporate Health Promotion Programs and self-care programs. Reductions in medical services results in savings for the Wisconsin Education Insurance Group of as much as $4.75 for each $1 spent, higher savings were found in the group receiving access to a 24-hour phone-based nurse advice line, a self-care reference book, and health education materials.

CIGNA’s Healthy Babies prenatal Corporate Health Promotion Program delivered an average savings of $5,000 per birth by providing expectant mothers with educational materials and rewarding early and regular prenatal care. And 80% of participants had normal births without complications compared with 50% for non-participant.

With savings estimated to be as high as $8 million, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System sent its 55,000 retirees a health risk appraisal followed, in some cases, with individualized reports and letters and self-care materials to encourage change and help reduce health risks among retirees and at the same time reduce the medical care claim costs. In another study, Bank of America retirees in California who chose the full Corporate Health Promotion Program and demand reduction program showed a decrease in total direct and indirect costs of 11% compared with an increase of 6.3% for those who completed only a simple health questionnaire.

With reduced medical care claims, medical costs decreased 16% for staff members in the City of Mesa (Arizona) who participated in the broad-based Corporate Health Promotion Program. The city realized a return of $3.60 for every dollar invested in the wellnss program for the city staff members.

To prevent back injuries among its staff members, a county in California targeted white- and blue-collar employees, provided classes and fitness training. As a result, there was a significant increase in worker morale, decreased worker’s comp claims, medical costs and sick days related to back injuries producing a net cost-benefit ratio of 1 to 1.79.

Corporate Health Promotion Programs: Benefits

Corporate Health Promotion Programs offer Long-Term Benefits

Corporate Health Promotion Programs, according to an article in Crain’s Detroit Business, come in two varieties:  Corporate Health Promotion Programs or Health Insurance products that aim to lower costs if healthy habits are followed.  Both options are a good choice, but only one will really offer long-term health benefits for your staff members and lower costs over the years.

Corporate Health Promotion Programs offer Help

Insurance-based products offer staff members the opportunity, according to the article by Jay Green, to save money on their premiums if they follow certain steps, including performing an internet-based health assessment, visiting their doctor, and agree to adopt a healthy lifestyle.  These plans usually involve one coach call to the worker during the first 90 days.  We wonder if these brief wellness encounters will actually change a individual’s lifestyle.

It is the overall change in a individual’s lifestyle, as well as disease prevention that will lead to lower health costs in the future.

Corporate Health Promotion Programs offer convenient health risk assessments and health testing for things like diabetes, cholesterol and blood pressure.  As the article states, these have initial start-up costs, but the savings accrue over time and staff members are more likely to stay active in an worksite worker Health Promotion Program.

Corporate Health Promotion Programs Get Results

Finally, the article states that corporations with an effective Corporate Health Promotion Program can expect to see “500 percent lower absenteeism, 400 percent fewer disability claims, and 350 percent lower medical care costs.”  These are numbers that are very hard to argue with.