Employers getting pushy in drive to better health
Original article from benefitspro.com
By Allen Greenberg
Short of bribery and potentially violating anti-discrimination laws by not hiring obese smokers, there’s little employers can do to improve the health of their workforce.
Or is there?
What looks to be a growing number of employers are, in fact, embracing outcomes-based disincentives to prod employees to achieve specific health outcomes, rather than merely enroll in their wellness programs.
Off the bat, I know that sounds like Big Brother. But I also think it sounds like a constructive and fairly non-intrusive way for employers to try to regain some control in the losing battle to reign in health care costs.
The Midwest Business Group of Health, a Chicago-based nonprofit group with more than 120 large, self-insured public and private employers, dug into this question in one of its latest surveys and came up with some interesting findings about the carrots and sticks employers rely on.
Let’s start with what everyone enjoys.
Among employers offering incentives, 62 percent report they offer employees who follow their wellness programs reduced premiums. Another 38 percent use gift cards and 35 percent offer merchandise.
Not bad. Put down the Hershey’s Kisses between meals and get a nicely loaded Starbucks gift card at the end of the month.
Actually, in a lot of instances, we’re talking about something of much greater value. Twenty-two percent of the companies in the survey reported their incentives were worth $500-$1,000.
Seventy-one percent of the surveyed companies said they found their incentive strategy was “very successful” or “successful.”
So, how about the stick?
More than 37 percent said they have begun to rely on penalties in response to nonparticipation in their wellness rewards. Increased health care premiums and coverage plan limitations are among the more common sticks.
This is a new trend, to be sure, so there’s some measure of experimentation going on and certainly room for improvement. Just 45 percent of those surveyed viewed their disincentive strategy as “very successful” or “successful.”
That shouldn’t be taken to mean we won’t see more of this. As Cheryl Larson, vice president for the Midwest Business Group on Health, will tell you, employers are fairly desperate nowadays to find ways to save health care dollars.
Which is why more than 40 percent of those surveyed now expect their employees to kick in a higher share of their plan premiums if they don’t stay on track with the company’s wellness programs, while another 16 percent are considering doing so.
Wellness programs have been around for decades, but there’s still a lot for HR managers to learn about what works and what doesn’t, and there's naturally going to be squeamishness about pulling out disincentives.
One key lesson shared by an employer cited in the MBGH survey:
“Even though our employees were not happy about the implementation of the program, we have a very compliant population. We know they complain about it, but they end up participating to take advantage of the incentives.”
In other words, yes, incentives, are always going to be popular. But if they don’t work, you might try throwing a few disincentives into the mix, rather than tossing away millions more in benefits dollars.
The wellness path not taken
Original article: https://ebn.benefitnews.com
By Kathleen Koster
With full implementation of health care reform marching along, the landscape of employer-sponsored health benefits will never be the same. As employers turn to private and public exchanges beginning in 2014 as allowed under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the purpose for and implementation of worksite wellness programs also are likely to change.
Dr. Matthew Liss, East Coast medical director of NBCUniversal Health Services, fears that employers may not see wellness as their responsibility or employees will be less engaged in wellness initiatives because employers won't work as closely with vendors in the exchange.
Employers may not have access to health data as in the past, which could influence their investment in wellness programs, as well as impact incentives for healthy behavior. Liss points to premium reductions for nonsmokers or incentives for going to the gym that are currently offered by working hand in hand with health care providers. Employers may lose this ability to work with vendors while developing wellness incentives if employees receive coverage through a public or private exchange.
Certain populations could lose out
Bryce Williams, the president and CEO of Extend Health, Inc., which operates the nation's largest private exchange recently acquired by Towers Watson, believes that the most likely demographic to move employees into public exchanges would be small employers with 500 or fewer employees. Employers in this situation would be more likely to stop providing or lessen wellness services to workers than those entering private exchanges, he says.
In general, small employers don't have data to show them the best practices in wellness programs, explains Dave Ratcliffe, a principal at Buck Consulting. This could remain the case for small employers whose workers enter the public marketplaces. Ratcliffe adds that the more employers measure their initiatives, the more investment they make into wellness.
In the retail industry, where part-time workers outnumber full-time workers, some employers will reframe their total reward strategy for a post-2014 health care reform world. Some of Ratcliffe's clients in this sector are considering restructuring jobs and recalibrating total remuneration in order to attract, retain and motivate the workforce. For example, he says an employer may limit part-time workers to clock fewer than 30 hours each week, while rewarding top talent with over 30 hours of scheduled work so they can receive the best health benefits as defined under PPACA. While such a workforce restructuring may require more part-time employees who work under 30 hours per week, this framework could be a motivational carrot to drive talent.
Instead of developing wellness programs exclusively to drive down the health cost curve, employers will use wellness to improve population health and the overall productivity.
"Even if your employees are getting coverage through the exchange now, you want to make sure that they are healthy because a healthier employee is a more productive employee," says Julie Stich, research director at the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.
Williams adds that large employers could leverage any savings they absorb through an exchange setup by reinvesting them into employees, especially into their wellness component.
Giving up a global edge?
According to a recent report from Buck Consultants, 87% of global employers recognize managing employee health as their responsibility in 2012, up from 75% in 2010. Further, 49% of multinational employers now have global health promotion strategies, up from 34% in 2004.
Based on these results, employers believe they need a healthy and productive workforce to have an edge in a global economy.
"If you look globally, the universal responses from all of the countries that productivity and reducing presenteeism was the No. 1 goal for their wellness program, [whereas] for U.S. companies, the No. 1 goal is reducing health care costs," Ratcliffe says. For most employers outside the U.S., employees receive coverage from a government-sponsored system, yet they continue to view wellness initiatives as paramount to driving a profit.
Further, the 2014 reinsurance tax (which could increase employers' health insurance costs by 1-2%), a looming 2018 excise tax, mandated benefits and auto-enrollment could all cause employers to consider shifting cost downward and investing more into wellness. In recent years, plan sponsors have managed a 5% trend rate by predominantly cutting benefits or cost-shifting. "From an attraction and retention standpoint, how much more can we afford to continue to cut benefits? So we're left with wellness to manage costs instead of shifting costs," says Ratcliffe.
In the new health care reform environment, Ratcliffe believes incentives and disincentives will play an even larger role in motivating employees to participate and succeed in wellness. PPACA permits an increase of allowable incentive dollars from 20% to 30%, and more employers are using outcomes-based incentives to drive results.
Overall, the U.S. spends roughly 18% of their total GDP on health care, while the rest of the world spends 9.5% on average. However the U.S.'s average rate of obesity is nearly double the rest of the world's (28% compared to 15%), according to 2012 OECD health data.
"Regardless of health care reform, we're not going to be able to compete in the future without making a change," says Ratcliffe.
Vendor relationships also will morph
The private exchange market, whether insured or self-funded, will function more like a group exchange, where the employer contracts with the exchange instead of sending people individually to a public exchange. For these private exchanges, "employers are not losing access to that data because they are still in a group world in 2014," Ratcliffe explains.
Public exchanges may tell a different story. Employers won't get data for people sent to public exchanges, but Ratcliffe doesn't expect many employers will go this route initially in 2014. Farther down the road when there's a viable individual market similar to Medicare, vendor relationships may change.
Employers' relationships with health vendors, in addition to how they measure and run wellness programs, are sure to change in coming years as employers consider private and public exchanges as options to provide insurance coverage to workers. It remains to be seen how exchanges will change wellness initiatives, but it's clear that wellness programs will always be a business imperative to keep workers healthy, productive and satisfied with their employer.
HealthyWage puts a little betting in competitive weight loss
Source: https://ebn.benefitnews.com
By Tristan Lejeune
Jon Whicker had a weight-loss problem. The finance manager and father of two from Utah, who at his heaviest weighed in at about 400 pounds, had joined a dieting competition with some family members. Several weeks in, things were going great until Whicker, 37, encountered an unusual dilemma: He had lost too much too quickly.
HealthyWage is a weight-loss initiative with an interesting twist — participants have bet their own money and stand to gain considerable payouts — but for health and safety reasons they place limits on shed poundage in a given timeframe, limits Whicker had broken. For the $10,000 prize Matchup competition, rules cap loss at 16.59% of starting weight over a 12-week period.
“I maxed out,” Whicker says. “I was 1% above that, like 17%.” Many people would call that an enviable problem, and indeed Whicker could sense success.
“Once that competition was over, I wanted to keep going; I wasn’t ready to stop yet, so I actually got a group of people from my office to do it with me,” he says. “So we competed in a second challenge in which I lost 16.4% of my body weight.”
That’s of his new starting body weight. All told, Whicker has lost 125 lbs. and gained $2,200 through the HealthWage programs, and he’s not done — he wants to get rid of another 50.
“Having some skin in the game encourages you not to give up, that is for sure,” Whicker says. “I could see teams giving up if they really hadn’t put any money out there. For me, just the competition keeps me motivated.”
That “skin in the game,” HealthyWage officials say, is significantly more of a motivator than the traditional incentives that employers offer with weight-loss programs. The wagered risk (and competitive nature) of betting on your own diet and exercise is seeing marked success, they report. HealthyWage officials says they offer a 49% and 29% success rates, respectively, for 5%+ and 10%+ weight loss.
HealthyWage offers three basic competition formats, all of which it says suit the workplace perfectly: The Matchup, in which teams of five compete together to lose the most weight (again, up to 16.59%); the 10% Challenge, where participants can double their money if they lose 10% of their body weight in six months; and the BMI Challenge, which rewards achieving a healthy body mass index.
Employers turn to tech for wellness
Source: https://www.benefitspro.com
By Amanda McGrory-Dixon
More employers are relying on new technologies to promote health engagement and attain targeted employee behavior changes, according to a new study by Buck Consultants and WorldatWork.
Specifically, 62 percent of respondents report using gamification and believe it is most effective, and 31 percent of respondents say they are likely to implement gamification in the next year. Fifty percent of respondents use social networking, though there are concerns over personal privacy. Another 36 percent of respondents use mobile technology, which is the least used, but 40 percent of respondents say they expect to rely on mobile technology in the future.
Additionally, 73 percent of respondents say they have implemented health engagement strategies, measure communication effective have a health engagement strategy in place and measurement of communication effectiveness, but return on investment could use more help.
While roughly half of respondents say mobile technology will be the most prevalent technology used by employers in the next two years, only 11 percent of respondents report measuring ROI on mobile apps and social media platforms, and 21 percent of respondents say they measure ROI on gamification.
“The lack of measurement is due, in part, to the fact that many companies are using third parties, such as health insurers and wellness program vendors, to handle various aspects of their wellness programs,” says Lenny Sanicola, CBP, senior benefits practice leader of WorldatWork. “These companies should direct their vendors to better engage employees and to collaborate on measuring effectiveness.”
The survey reveals that the largest obstacle from keeping respondents using these technologies is budgeting at 71 percent for gamification, 73 percent for mobile technology and 68 percent for social networking. Respondents also say lack of senior management support and no effectiveness measurements are barriers for these technologies. When it comes to social media, 43 percent of respondents say they have blocked some or all sites from employees’ computers.
“Today’s health care benefits require individuals to absorb an increasing share of expanding health care costs,” says Scot Marcotte, managing director of talent and human resources solutions at Buck Consulting. “Technology offers unprecedented ways for employers to motivate and enable employees to become more effective health care consumers. But employers need to better understand what drives their workers to make the desired changes.”
Moving beyond baby steps with wellness
Source: https://ebn.benefitnews.com
By Samuel H. Fleet
Employers want to do the right thing when it comes to health benefits for their employees, not only because it is humane, but also because it makes good business sense to take care of their most important assets. As health benefits have become increasingly costly, employers have struggled to find the key to meeting healthcare needs without breaking the bank. Many have pinned their hopes on wellness initiatives, the most popular offerings including newsletters and websites, weight-loss programs and smoking cessation programs.
Why baby steps are not enough
The earliest wellness initiatives were grounded in the concept that once employees are confronted with information about unhealthy behaviors they will make improvements that will lead to better health.
Information alone, however, is rarely enough to make a difference. Employers are beginning to face the hard truth that giving employees access to wellness support has done little to change the overall health of their workforces. To reach that goal, they have to move beyond providing information to a much more effective level of wellness support: Employee health risk management.
Tying consequences to health risk management
Employee Health Risk Management is an approach that allows employers to actively manage the health risks of their employees. Among the tools are health risk assessments and biometric health screenings to help identify risks that are driving healthcare expenses.
When made mandatory for employees, these tools can be coupled with consequences. Instead of appealing to reason (“if you exercise, you will be healthier”), these advanced wellness initiatives provide both carrots and sticks to link an employee’s actions and outcomes to consequences. For example, people who continue to smoke even after having access to cessation support pay higher premiums for their health care. Or people who join a gym and use it three times a week pay lower premiums. Or a person who agrees to regular cholesterol and blood pressure screening earns an annual bonus. Ultimately the goal is to implement value-based plan designs tailor-made for employee populations.
Finding the right partner
When plans are well-designed, the requirements are both attainable and accompanied by support to help employees succeed. For example, a well-designed plan does not ask an employee to reduce Body Mass Index from 40 to 25 in one year. A 10% or 15% reduction goal, supported by free access to plans like Weight Watchers, and supported with rewards and recognition may inspire the behavioral changes that will lead to a lower BMI with little further encouragement.
Wellness initiatives have always had the right idea: a healthy workforce costs less when it comes to health care benefits. But until recently, most have stopped short of the hard work it takes to get people to change their habits and lifestyles. In the era of health care reform, smart employers are stepping up their wellness efforts to make them more effective, and brokers are leading the way with cost-effective solutions. Now is the time to move beyond baby steps and actively manage the health and well-being of employees and their dependents.
Offer Your Employees Financial Wellness With Lunch
Your employees have seen a reduction in their pay. Likely a reduction that they couldn't afford to see. We want to educate them as to why and how they can leverage these changes to help plan their futures and ensure their financial wellness. Show them that their company understands the impact this payroll tax change has had at home and that you are there to help them. It is important that they know your company is not the root of the issue.
It's Easy!
Your employees will participate in a survey, either online or on paper. We won't gather any personal information. We are just looking to fully understand how your employees feel about their financial wellness and the areas they feel they need education.
We Do All the Work!
We will compile the results and provide those to you so to see the areas of need. The results are yours to keep to use in any way you choose in your efforts to better assist and educate your work force.
Employees Get Fed!
That's Right! We will not only come on-site and provide lunch, but we will also feed your employees with financial education based on the information we gathered from the survey.
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9 ways office food fuels employee satisfaction and productivity
Food can play an important role in motivating employees to spend more time in the office, work more effectively while there and generally view their workplace more positively, finds a nationwide survey of nearly 1,100 full-time professionals across more than a dozen different industries. The survey by Seamless, the leading service for ordering delivery and takeout from restaurants in the U.S. and U.K., also reveals the importance of food as a means for building and fostering relationships with clients.
Since the average employee works more than 40 hours a week, “food remains a relatively untapped perk that companies can use to measurably improve employee retention and happiness and show their appreciation, while separating themselves from competitors. Free food all the time is unrealistic for most companies, but the occasional pizza party or afternoon treat goes a long way,” says Nick Worswick, vice president and general manager of corporate at Seamless.
Here are nine positive ways food can be used to inspire healthy eating in the workplace and foster higher productivity levels among employees.
1. Employee Satisfaction
While a majority (60%) of employees say they are satisfied with their current employment situation, 69% feel that more perks – including gym memberships (40%), stock options (22%) and food perks (20%) - would have a direct positive impact on their job satisfaction.
2. Recruiting Advantage
Nearly half of the respondents note that the availability of free lunch would strongly influence their decision to accept a job offer.
3. A Pat on the Back
Sixty percent report that having more food at the office would make them feel more valued and appreciated by their employer.
4. Team Building
More than 60% of respondents agree that company-provided lunches would encourage them to eat with their colleagues, fostering more internal collaboration.
5. Motivation and Productivity
One-third of the employees surveyed divulge that it takes food to make them show up to optional meetings – and another 20% admit to making their decision after knowing what’s on the menu.
6. Client Camaraderie
Forty-three percent of employees say sharing food or a meal with clients helps foster a better working relationship. Food also tops the list in terms of the best client gifts, with 41% noting that food is the very best option for corporate gifts.
7. Time to Spare
More than half of employees say they would spend less time away from work if food were available. Half of the respondents (51%) report spending more than 10 minutes per day picking up lunch or other food outside the office.
8. Healthy Choices
More than half of employees also say having food perks in the workplace would help them eat healthier.
9. Peace of Mind
Nearly half of respondents feel that more food perks in the workplace would make them more satisfied with their employer, in turn reducing 40% of respondents’ personal stress.
Wellness Programs Can Reduce Worker Medical Costs by 18 Percent: Study
Source: https://www.workforce.com
By Sheena Harrison
Workplace wellness programs can reduce medical costs by more than 18 percent for the average worker, according to a report published by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
The January edition of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, published by the Elk Grove Village, Illinois-based ACOEM, includes a study titled "Medical Care Savings From Workplace Wellness Programs: What Is a Realistic Savings Potential?"
The report said wellness programs could reduce costs for risks such as physical inactivity, smoking, high blood pressure and obesity. If the risk factors were lowered to "theoretical minimums," health care expenses could be lowered by an average of $650, or 18.4 percent, for all working adults, the study said.
Cost savings can reach up to 28 percent for aging employees and retirees who participate in wellness programs, according to the study.
"Medical care savings from workplace wellness programs will increase with time given that more eligible wellness program members participate, effective control of heightened risk factors improves, and greater risk reversal can be achieved," the report says.
"Healthiest Companies in America" Announced
Healthcare Costs Decline Among Top-Rated Companies as Employees Engage in Performance-Based Wellness Programs
Performance-based health programs deliver substantial results for companies and their employees
Source: https://www.prnewswire.com
CHICAGO, Feb. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Interactive Health Solutions, Inc. (IHS) today announced their 2011 "Healthiest Companies in America." Citing clinical and medical claim data from companies' performance-based employee health programs, IHS is presenting the awards for the fifth consecutive year.
The 70 honorees are corporations and organizations nationwide that have created a "culture of wellness," significantly reducing their healthcare costs through widespread employee participation in proactive health and wellness initiatives. The selection process involved evaluating healthcare data for the companies with clinical information demonstrating improved employee health across an index of key indicators.
IHS utilizes comprehensive data-driven analysis to customize care based on the employee's unique personal risk factors. Beginning with an initial health evaluation, IHS identifies individuals with health risks. Upon review of the employee's personal risk factors, a team of qualified health professionals creates an outreach program designed to ensure each individual is on a pathway to health.
"We engage an employer's entire employee population throughout the year to help individuals get and stay healthy. Our approach is highly personal in that we customize goals and a course of action, providing tools and support in a proactive way. This is about staying healthy and possibly even saving lives, as well as containing costs," said Joseph A. O'Brien , President and CEO of IHS.
On average, employers offering the IHS performance-based program reduced their health care costs by 8.4 percent year over year, while 81 percent of enrolled employees achieved or exceeded wellness goals. Market leaders in data-driven health and wellness programs for employee populations, IHS works with more than 1,400 employers with over one million employees.
"We've tracked over 36 million data points to deliver analysis and benchmarks against national norms and peer groups," said O'Brien. "'Healthiest Companies in America' recognizes those companies that do an outstanding job encouraging employees to engage with these programs. It's just one way to showcase this crucial component of containing healthcare costs nationally."
For more information on "Healthiest Companies in America," visit https://www.healthiestcompanies.com/
2013 Flu Season Hitting Workers Hard
Source: https://ohsonline.com
Data from the BLS Current Population Survey indicate absences were higher in January 2013 than in any month since February 2008.
More than 4 million American workers were working part time in January 2013 or were out because of their own illness, injury, or medical appointment, and this number was the highest for any month since February 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Feb. 19. The chart accompanying the brief report showed how the numbers tend to spike during peak flu season each year.
The data come from the BLS Current Population Survey. It showed 2,853,000 people were out part time because of their own illness, injury, or medical appointment, while 1,202,000 did not work at all during the survey reference week because of illness or injury.
"The number of workers with an absence because of their own illness, injury, or medical appointment shows a regular spike during the months of December through March. Although not all absent workers who supplied this reason were sick with a cold or the flu, it is likely that the increase in absences during the winter months is related to the seasonal illnesses that are typical during this time of year," BLS noted. Its report is an update of "Illness-related work absences during flu season" by Terence M. McMenamin in Issues in Labor Statistics, originally published in July 2010.
Workers are classified as at work part time if they worked fewer than 35 hours during the survey reference week.