Posted by Employer Wellness | Posted in Employer Wellness | Posted on 03-08-2010
Ten Steps Toward Strategic Wellness Programs
The Wellness Program management world is evolving rapidly. Each month, there are new research findings that support the premise that Wellness Programs and disease management have a long-term impact on healthcare costs.
A lot of big companies that began Wellness Programs three to five years ago are showing savings in health, disability, and workers compensation costs. Small to mid-size companies are watching all this and wondering where to begin with wellness.
Getting upper-level management support and budget approval is one of the challenges at the beginning of a Wellness Program. This is the case because Wellness Programs can be expensive, averaging $150-300 per staff member per year in big corporations.
Most of the savings are not realized for a number of years. This long-term investing is hard for corporations on the move.
The key to success for Wellness Programs is to take a strategic approach. Here are ten steps to consider when starting a Wellness Program.
1. Begin with senior level management. Without senior level management support, a wellness strategy can fall flat. Begin with the health of your executive team and discover your wellness champions at the top of the organization.
2. Analyze the problem. Look at your healthcare claims and analyze the trends. Which conditions are driving your medical, disability, and workers’ compensation claims and which are modifiable? What’s worked and what hasn’t hence far? What is the long-term impact of doing nothing?
3. Hold an initial wellness meeting. Invite your key stakeholders both inside and outside the corporation. Ask your broker to facilitate the meeting and invite key health providers including health, disability, Staff Member Assistance Program (EAP), fitness, and occupational nursing.
Review claims and utilization data and identify key areas of concern. Look at current offerings and see how they are able to be tailored to the needs of the population.
4. Consider both healthful and unhealthful staff members. Since 85 percent of claims are typically attributed to 15 percent of claimants, it is essential to reach those with the most costly conditions while also reaching individuals who are at risk for developing avoidable diseases in the future.
Voluntary wellness programs such as lunchtime wellness seminars miss many of the people who need them most. Consider programs that are population-wide or target intact workgroups. Wellness incentives help but do not motivate everybody.
5. Make sure to set short-term objectives for the wellness programs. Make sure to set some realistic short-term objectives based on your key areas of concern. Are there any plan design changes that could’ve an immediate impact on spending? Are there some programmatic actions that could’ve immediate results?
6. Find out what workers are thinking. Hold some focus groups to determine where people are with wellness. What’s working? What isn’t? How much interest do people have in the Wellness Programs? What obstacles and barriers are workers experiencing when they attempt to change behavior?
7. Be sure you’ve a high-impact Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Your first wellness dollars should go into upgrading your Employee Assistance Program (EAP). A highly utilized Employee Assistance Program (EAP) can provide a foundation for all of your future wellness activities.
A good Staff Member Assistance Program (EAP) is a trusted link to the hearts and minds of staff members. at no additional cost, the Staff Member Assistance Program (EAP) can provide needed follow-up coaching and personal attention for staff members who are working on modifiable health behaviors or involved in disease management (DM) programs.
Nutritionists, fitness, pregnancy, and stress management experts are all part of a high-value Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
8. Make certain to set three to five year objectives for health care savings and measure them. Get help from your broker and insurance carrier help you on long-term objectives for your health, disability, and staff members compensation plans.
Establish program metrics that’ll help you to measure ROI. Go beyond participation rates, completion rates and program satisfaction. Measure changes in readiness, changes in behavior, and changes in risk factors. Establish rigorous methods to measure healthcare savings over the long term.
9. Make sure to set goals for organizational health. Consider the more intangible advantages of a wellness program and quantify them whenever possible. Include staff member turnover rates, cost of new hires, staff member morale, benefit satisfaction data, and employer of option issues in establishing goals. Establish ways to measure success in these areas.
10. Add specifics to your short and long-term plan. Include a program strategy, a communication strategy, and an incentive strategy that will fit with your corporate culture. Focus on integration of related components along a health continuum with communications that are focused, simple, and human.
Establish a budget that includes key components such as consumer education, wellness, health risk (assessment|appraisal}s, and regular biometric screens.