Wellness in the Workplace

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Wellness in the Workplace

• Stephanie Ramsey, M.P.H.
• Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation
• April 15. 2005
• Meeting of the American Association of Safety
  Engineers
• April 15, 2005

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Introduction

• Open your hymnals!
• What are the linkages between healthy employees
  and healthy bottom lines?
• . the Health and Productivity Model
• Why the disconnect?
• How to restore the linkages? Is there an
  attractive ROI?
• Making Workplace Wellness a reality

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Business case for Health and Productivity
Management

• Rising medical and disability costs create
  business pressure that can mean the difference
  between success and failure to a company
• - Costs of medical services in the U.S. are
  rising at 7 times the rate of inflation (RWJ
  expects this rate to continue)
• - Claim costs (WC, Medical, Disability)
• - WC costs increased with increasing risk status
  ( Study at Xerox Corp. 1996-1999, Health
  Management Research Center, Univ. of Michigan)
• Workforce demographics
• - An aging workforce
• - Greater incidence of chronic disease
• - Incidental absence

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Business case for Health and Productivity
Management Summary of Costs (Continued)

• Productivity
• - Absenteeism
• - Presenteeism
• - Shift to a knowledge based business model
• - World-wide competitive environment
• Ancillary costs
• - Claim administration, vendors
• - Benefit plan design changes
• - Decreased benefits
• - Increased cost sifting

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First generation business response

• Benefit Plan design changes
• Emphasis on the cost shift
• Greater employee share to the claim expense
• 65 of companies in 2003 increased employee share
  of health costs (Healthy Ohioans Business
  Council)
• 79 of large firms reported plans to increase
  employee share in 2004 (HOBC)

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New Paradigm Health Productivity Management

• Human Capital management approach
• Not cost shift but demand management grounded
  in prevention
• Addresses absence, presenteeism, and employee
  health to lower incidence, decrease costs, and
  increase productivity

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Employer response

• Employers moving toward implementation across
  dimensions of wellness and health promotion to
  keep low risks low and manage high risks
• 69 using disease management programs through a
  health plan (NBGH/WW Study 2004)
• 50 increase over prior year
• 32 offering obesity reduction (up from 14 in
  prior year)
• Best performing companies succeeding across the
  board at managing costs and improving employee
  satisfaction!

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Is there a persuasive ROI?!!!Case Study Results

• Travelers Insurance reported 3.40 return to
  1.00 spent on health promotion programs
• DuPont Fitness Program ? savings of 1.6M,
  1.5M, 3M annually over 3 years
• Logan Aluminum (Kentucky) 2002-2003
• - ? Health claims by 19
• - ? 10 reduction in health care costs
• - Reversed prior annual increases of pharmacy
  costs of 20.2 (over 3 years) to reductions in
  2002 2003 of 5.5 and 5.3

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More Outcome Results

• Kimberly Clark reports a 43 reduction in
  absenteeism among EAP participants a 70 drop
  in accidents for one year post treatment vs. one
  year prior to treatmemt
• Adolph Coors reports a return of 1.24 - 8.33
  for every 1 spent on employee wellness and a
  1.3M saving through a cardiac rehab program over
  a 6 year period

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Establishing a successful wellness program Tips
from the National Business Group on Health

• Assess
• - What is corporate interest and need?
• - What are prior recommendations?
• - Evaluate costs and benefits
• - Communicate results of evaluation to all
  decision makers

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Step 2

• Developing/Purchasing
• - Set overall objectives
• - Determine whether to buy or build
• - Establish utilization goals
• - Set service parameters for quality service
  delivery
• - Develop quality assessment measures of health
  plans offering preventive services
• - Develop workflow and roll-out specs

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Step 3

• Communicating
• - Research attitudes and preferences of target
  audiences
• - Establish communication objectives
• - Identify target audiences and how they
  prefer to communicate
• - Use multi-media approach

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Step 4

• MEASURE. MEASURE. MEASURE
• - Measure results against PRE-DETERMINED
  objectives do NOT chase data !!!!
• - Evaluate program outcomes ( improved health,
  decreased risk factors, behavior change, reduced
  costs, lower absenteeism)
• - Evaluate benefit plan programs, preventive
  services, health promotion/disease management
  programs

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Resources

• Ohio BWC
• The Ohio Department of Health
• The Wellness Councils of America
• www.welcoa.org
• The National Business Group on Health
• www.businessgrouponhealth.org
• The Integrated Benefits Institute
• The Disability Management Employers Coalition

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The challenge.

• The health of the people is really the
  foundation upon which all their happiness and all
  their powers as a state depend.
• Benjamin Disraeli
• Improving health IS improving business.