Corporate Wellness Programs: The Bottom-Line Booster

Corporate Wellness Programs are proven to improve productivity and decrease health care costs. For a business, that makes a difference in the bottom-line. Today, more than 81 percent of America’s businesses with 50 or more employees have some form of Corporate Wellness Program with the most popular being exercise, tobaccos cessation classes, back care programs, and stress management. Most organizations offer Corporate Wellness 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 health insurance premiums and health care costs.

For many businesses, health 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 and rewards. But these methods merely shift costs. Only Corporate Wellness Programs stand out as the long-term answer for keeping employees well in the first place.

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

Corporate Wellness Program Statistics:

Providence Everett Medical Center, a member of the Wellness Councils of America, 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 Wellness Program. By offering financial incentives and rewards ($250 – $325) to employees who meet specific organizational and employee health initiatives the Corporate Wellness Program continues to meet cost containment expectations in the area of health care use, sick time, injuries, while improving health habits and self-care practices.

During the first 4 years of the Corporate Wellness Program there was a 28 percent average reduction in health 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 Wellness Program yielded $1.42 over two years in decreased rates of absenteeism costs at Du Pont Co. (Well worksite Gold in Delaware). Absences from illness unrelated to the job among 45,000 blue-collar employees dropped 14 percent at 41 industrial sites where the Corporate Wellness Program was offered, compared with a 5.8 percent decline at 19 sites where it was not.

The Travelers Corporation claims a $3.40 return for every dollar invested Corporate Wellness Programs, yielding total corporate savings of $146 million in benefits costs. Sick leave was reduced 19 percent during the four-year study. In addition to improving the overall health of 36,000 employees and retirees by reducing 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 Wellness Program were absent from work significantly fewer days than non-members.

The Corporate Wellness Program at Reynolds Electrical & Engineering Company, based in Las Vegas, cost $76.24 per employee during the two years it has been in operation. Over half of the 1,600 employees participated in the Corporate Wellness Program. Participants significantly lowered cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and weight and experienced 21 percent lower lifestyle-related claim costs than non-participant. Resulting savings: $127.89 per participant in the Corporate Wellness 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 complete Corporate Wellness Program. Superior showed 22 percent fewer admissions to a hospital, 29 percent shorter hospital stays, and 42 percent lower expenses per admission when comparing costs for this division’s 1,200 employees with costs for other divisions. Long-term disability costs were down by 40 percent.

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

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

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

A health claims-based study of 72,000 people insured through 285 Wisconsin school districts found a decreased demand for health services among those with access to Corporate Wellness Programs and self-care programs. Reductions in health 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 Wellness 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 percent of participants had normal births without complications compared with 50 percent for non-participant.

With savings estimated to be as high as $8 million, the California Public Staff Members’ 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 health care claim costs. In another study, Bank of America retirees in California who chose the full Corporate Wellness Program and demand reduction program showed a decrease in total direct and indirect costs of 11 percent compared with an increase of 6.3 percent for those who completed only a simple health questionnaire.

With decreased health care claims, health costs decreased 16 percent for employees in the City of Mesa (Arizona) who participated in the complete Corporate Wellness Program. The city realized a return of $3.60 for every dollar invested in the wellnss program for the city employees.

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

Corporate Wellness Programs: Results

Corporate Wellness Programs provide Long-Term Results

Corporate Wellness Programs, according to an article in Crain’s Detroit Business, come in two choices: Corporate Wellness Programs or Health Insurance products that aim to lower costs if healthy habits are followed. Both options are good, but only one will really provide long-term medical benefits for your employees and lower costs over the years.

Corporate Wellness Programs provide Help

Insurance-based products provide employees 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 employee 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 medical cots in the future.

Corporate Wellness Programs provide 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 employees are more likely to stay active in an workplace employee Wellness Program.

Corporate Wellness Programs Get Results

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