Are wellness programs a big waste?
October 3, 2008 by Jim GiulianoPosted in: Behavior, Communication, Incentives, Money, Special Report, policies
The “Wellness Wave” started about five years ago, and consultants said it would be the key to capping healthcare costs and, by the way, keeping employees happy. It hasn’t quite worked out that way, however. And there are some reasons why.
The bad-news numbers on wellness come from HR consultant Hewitt Associates, which asked employers that have various wellness programs to gauge employee participation.
- Only 4% of smokers took part in employer-sponsored smoking-cessation programs.
- Just 5% of overweight employees signed up for weight-reduction programs.
- One out every 10 employees who suffered from chronic ailments such as diabetes, asthma and heart disease took part in programs designed to address those problems, meaning of course that 90% of eligible employees ignored the programs.
What did work
Why didn’t those employee-sponsored programs work? The reasons are varied and complicated. So probably the better approach is to look at employers whose programs did work, in that they got decent participation and good results.
To learn about that, HR Morning conducted its own survey of 1,174 HR managers to ask about whether they linked wellness to health care and whether they were successful. The HR execs who said they had some success pointed to health-risk assessment as the key — and getting employees to understand that assessments were in their best interests, and not just a way for the company to save money.
That matches some other research by Hewitt that indicates companies have a lot more success with wellness when it starts with a health-risk assessment, in which the employee answers questions about his or her health and gets back a report on which health problems need to be addressed and how to address them.
Compare the low participation rates above with these tied to health-risk assessments:
- According to Hewitt, 55% of workers who completed a health-risk assessment say they’re taking the recommended action.
- 35% said they plan to take action.
- Only 10% of employees don’t plan to take action to improve their health, based on the health-risk assessment feedback.
Warning
Here’s a warning, though, about what makes health-risk assessments unsuccessful: The companies that got the worst results usually:
- Required employees to complete the assessment. That is, when the assessments were mandatory, employees pushed back by refusing to follow the recommendations of the assessments.
- Emphasized the money-saving aspect. When employees perceived the assessment was just another way to increase employer profits, failure was almost guaranteed.
Tags: Health care, healthcare, Hewitt, HR, wellness
October 6th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
We started a wellness program 3 yrs age and have about 90% participation. We simply charge everyone who does not participate twice the monthly employee premium if they do not participate. Acceptance has been very good. People really do want to be healthy. We also require everyone to visit the wellness nurse twice during the year for a one on one. Thats it. Time will tell if the program saves money but if we avoid one serious illness it is worth the cost!!
October 6th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
We feel our Wellness Program is a success. Last year our healthcare costs were $170,000 less than the year before. There have been no health insurance premium increases for two years. Requirements for the program are an annual health assessment, physical, release from physician, and blood work done in-house in June and December each year. We gauge cholesterol, glucose, BFI, BMI, and blood pressure. We give great incentives for getting and keeping these numbers in the healthy range, and also for remaining “tobacco” free. The Wellness Coordinator arranges plenty of wellness classes on a variety of subjects and also provides one-on-one sessions.
October 6th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Any metrics or comments on Flu Vaccines?
October 7th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Laura – would be very interested in knowing more about the programs you provide. We have just begun our wellness program.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:40 am
BTW – wellness programs started over 20 years ago. I was doing one at a large corporation at that time. The programs that started in the past five years are the ones tied into incentives with the healthcare plan. The incentive plans do work if there is a financial “carrot” applied to them. When people realize that the plans really are the employers’ and if the employers choose to minimize exposure through wellness programs and they will reduce their own premiums at the same time – they are successful. People have to become consumers and make informed choices with their health plans. Wellness programs help them make better choices.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
My husband’s company does health assessments. The problem with me doing it as a spouse is that it requires too much medical information that I don’t have…cholesteral levels, blood pressure, etc. So it’s kind of pointless. By the time I get that info, the period is closed to do the assessment.
October 7th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
As an employee benefit consultant for health insurance plans, I find wellness programs to be very strong in controlling costs long term. What is difficult for mid-sized employers to quantify is how much was REALLY prevented by them in terms of conditions that did not exist from one plan year to the next. If in 2007 your plan had two $40,000 heart conditions tied to obesity or smoking, and then the next year there weren’t any… Can you quantify $80,000 as a return on investment to the plan for its introduction to a wellness program? Of course you can’t, especially if you are a mid-sized employer. However, over time, if the wellness program prevents one or two large conditions from happening it will more than pay for itself from a financial standpoint (not to mention that it may have saved the life/helped the well-being of one of your employees). The Hewitt study is great, and what I take most from it is the emphasis on how the plan is rolled out and communicated to employees in order for a comprehensive wellness program to really be successful.
October 8th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Given the uncertainty of the financial markets these days, employers that look to staying productive and enhance the work environment will succeed in the world economic order. A wellness program that has measurable outcome tool as the basis for establishing both corporate and personal accountability is really the only way to know how effective it is. Too often clients ask for the “quick fix” under pressure from senior management to get costs under control with little planning for how to measure the effectiveness of the program. Any wellness program worth anything must have the budget, support from management and employees, save more than it costs, and have a regular measurable outcome assessments. The major reasons a wellness program fails is it wasn’t a true wellness program to begin with.
October 8th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Laura, I am interested in knowing your formula for success; can you give me an overview of your wellness strategies including measurements? Thanks
October 20th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I work for a large global computer software company and we are currently in the process of creating and implementing a wellness program for the employees. We are looking to partner with wellness vendor and our first initiativ after a huge kickoff will be rolling out an HRA. Based on my research, I found that incentives work best for the success of wellness programs. Although we will be incenting ee’s to participate int he HRA, we also want to incetive employees for signing up and completing programs we implement such as obesity, smoking cessation. Any thoughts around this idea?
October 20th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Dawn and Sharon, Our Wellness Coordinator is Nancy Hudspeth. Call us at 704-872-6522 and we can get more information to you.
September 24th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Unless it comes with a personal trainer or someone to follow the smoker or eater around 24/7, I am going to say that 9 times out of 10 it is a waste!