Where wellness needs work: 2 places to check
August 27, 2009 by Jared BilskiPosted in: Health care, In this week's e-newsletter - benefits, Latest News & Views, Management, Pay and benefits
When it comes to wellness programs, there are two major areas in which the majority of companies can stand to improve — and one may come as shock.
The findings of a recent national study make a strong case for focusing wellness dollars in the following “needs improvement” areas:
- Obesity, and
- Prenatal care.
On obesity, the study cited some staggering figures from the Centers for Disease Control.
For example: In the U.S., obesity costs employers $117 billion annually. Over the last decade, obesity has accounted for 27% of the rise in medical costs.
When it comes to prenatal care, the U.S. comes in at 29th in the world when it comes to preventing infant mortality — with an overall infant mortality rate of around 7%.
Those numbers greatly fluctuate depending on location, employee income level, ethnicity and access to care.
A good safeguard for companies: Eliminating barriers to care (high co-pays, etc.) and focusing on the quality of prenatal and early developmental treatments in the company’s health plan.
A more detailed picture of these findings can be found on the Centers for Diseas Control Web site.
Tags: Centers for Disease Control, obesity, Prenatal care, wellness programs
September 3rd, 2009 at 9:58 am
U. S. – 29th in the world – are you kidding me?
September 8th, 2009 at 9:38 am
We are 29th in the world because we define live birth and infant mortality much differently than the rest of the world. The rest of the world waits much longer before classifying a birth a “live birth”. The US gets punished statistically for our heroic efforts in premature birth care.