HJAR Jan/Feb 2020

16 JAN / FEB 2020  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS EMPLOYER SPONSORED WELLNESS PROGRAMS The number one asset for employers is their employees, who bring skills, experi- ence, and knowledge to the company. Other than competitive pay, the best way employ- ers can recruit the best employees is to offer excellent benefits. The most appealing aspect of an employer’s benefit package is often the group health insurance. However, for a mul- titude of reasons, medical costs are trending upward, and are expected to increase another 6 percent for 2020, which is an 89 percent inflation rate since 2000 1 . Employers are des- perately searching for ways to make their group health insurance plans more sustain- able. One of the latest developments within the health insurance industry is the employer sponsored wellness program.  Diseases such as diabetes and cancer are major cost drivers within a group health insurance plan. It is well known that when cancer is detected in its early stages, the sur- vival rate increases, and the insurance paid by employers for medical care is less costly. For the sake of this article, we will remove the emotional human element and focus more on the financial side of medical care. Accord- ing to a study by the World Health Organi- zation, cancer treatments for patients with early diagnoses are estimated to be one half to one quarter of the expense, compared to treatments for patients with advanced stages of cancer 2 . Thus, early detection is key to may experience major loss of motor func- tions, speech, sight, and other detrimental conditions. If an employee wellness program can prevent such a major loss of health and physical well-being, the employee will ben- efit, as will the company, who will avoid a negative financial impact. Likewise, during the annual exam, the employee will have lab work done, and conditions such as high cho- lesterol, diabetes, heart disease, and other health problems can be detected. Early de- tection is key, and wellness programs remind employees about other preventive measures such as mammograms, colonoscopies, pros- tate exams, and immunizations. Second, wellness programs promote ex- ercise, healthy diet, and smoking cessation through regular communication with em- ployees. Many wellness programs include communications through email, cell phone apps, flyers, and text messages. Employees who exercise, eat right, and do not smoke tend to live healthy lives well past retire- ment age 3 .  Third, wellness programs are designed to reduce stress by promoting a more engaging workplace and educating employees about better practices such as managing personal finances, choosing a better diet, and exercis- ing more often. Employees with lower stress levels are happier and healthier. Fourth, wellness programs can offer a preventing high medical claim costs. Keep- ing medical claim costs low on a group health insurance plan is essential to keeping the premiums low and making the health plan sustainable for an employer. Therefore, one of the main concepts of an employer spon- sored wellness program is to identify major health cost drivers early, thus saving money and lives. Wellness programs were created to make employees happier, and to improve employ- ees’health. Within a wellness program, there are at least four ways a company can attempt to improve their employees’ health. First, wellness programs provide an incen- tive for employees to get a wellness exam from their primary care physician once a year. Some employers offer special gifts or financial reimbursement on the employee’s paycheck, while other employers are making wellness exams mandatory. The sole purpose of the annual wellness exam is for the em- ployee to be evaluated by their primary care physician. The annual exam includes check- ing the employee’s blood pressure. Checking blood pressure is a relatively simple proce- dure, however, it is essential to ruling out hy- pertension. In the event an employee does not have an annual checkup, and happens to have hypertension, the employee’s condition could lead to a stroke. Astroke can have neg- ative consequences for the employee, who “The annual exam includes checking the employee’s blood pressure. Checking blood pressure is a relatively simple procedure, however, it is essential to ruling out hypertension.”

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