Wellness Programs : Where to Start with Wellness.
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 (DM) have a long-term impact on healthcare costs.
A lot of big businesses that began Health Promotion Programs three to five years ago are showing savings in health, disability, and staff compensation costs. Small to mid-size businesses are watching all this and wondering where to start with wellness.
Getting senior 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 could be expensive, averaging $150-300 per employee annually in large businesses.
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 Health Promotion Programs is to take a strategic approach. Here are ten steps to consider when starting a Health Promotion 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 business.
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 consequently far? What’s the long-term impact of doing nothing?
3. Hold an initial wellness meeting. Invite your key stakeholders both inside and outside the business. Ask your broker to facilitate the meeting and invite key health vendors 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 healthy and unhealthy employees. Since 85% of claims are usually attributed to 15% of claimants, it is essential to reach those with the most expensive conditions while also reaching people who are at risk for developing preventable diseases in the future.
Voluntary health promotion programs such as lunchtime wellness seminars miss many of the individuals who need them most. Consider health promotion programs that are population-wide or target intact workgroups. Health Promotion incentives help but do not motivate everybody.
5. Be sure to set short-term objectives for the wellness programs. Be 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 personnel are thinking. Hold some focus groups to determine where people are with wellness. What’s working? What isn’t? Just how much interest do people have in the Wellness Programs? What obstacles and barriers are personnel experiencing when they try to change behavior?
7. Make certain you have a high-impact Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Your first wellness dollars ought to 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 workforce. At no additional cost, the Staff Member Assistance Program (EAP) can provide needed follow-up coaching and personal attention for workforce who are working on modifiable health behaviors or involved in disease management programs.
Nutritionists, fitness, pregnancy, and stress management experts are all part of a high-value Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
8. Make sure to set three to five year goals for healthcare savings and measure them. Get help from your broker and insurance carrier help you on long-term goals for your health, disability, and workers compensation plans.
Establish program metrics that will 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 health care savings over the long term.
9. Be sure to set goals for organizational health. Consider the more intangible advantages of a wellness program and quantify them whenever possible. Include worker turnover rates, cost of new hires, worker morale, benefit satisfaction data, and corporation 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’ll 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 like consumer education, wellness, health risk assessments, and regular biometric screens.