Posted by Health Wellness | Posted in workplace wellness | Posted on 27-08-2010
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 health care costs.
Many big businesses that began Wellness Programs three to five years ago are showing savings in health, disability, and staff members compensation costs. Small to mid-size businesses are watching all this and wondering where to start with wellness.
Getting senior management support and budget approval is among the challenges at the starting of a Wellness Program. This is the case because Wellness Programs may be expensive, averaging $150-300 per worker per year in large corporations.
Most of the savings are not realized for a number of years. This long-term investing is hard for companies 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 as a result 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 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 can be tailored to the needs of the population.
4. Consider both healthy and unhealthy employees. Since 85% of claims are generally attributed to 15% of claimants, it is essential to reach those with the most expensive conditions while also reaching individuals who are at risk for developing avoidable illnesses in the future.
Voluntary wellness programs like lunchtime wellness workshops miss many of the people who need them most. Consider programs that are population-wide or target intact workgroups. Wellness incentives help but don’t motivate everybody.
5. Be certain to set short-term goals for the wellness programs. Be certain to set some realistic short-term goals based on your key areas of concern. Are there any plan design changes that could have an immediate impact on spending? Are there some programmatic actions that could have immediate results?
6. Find out what workers are thinking. Hold some focus groups to determine where individuals are with wellness. What’s working? What isn’t? How much interest do individuals have in the Wellness Programs? What obstacles and barriers are workers experiencing when they try to change behavior?
7. Make certain 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 professionals are all part of a high-value Worker Assistance Program (EAP).
8. Make certain 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 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 health care savings over the long term.
9. Be certain to set goals for organizational health. Consider the more intangible benefits 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 choice 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 such as consumer education, wellness, health risk (assessment|appraisal}s, and regular biometric screens.