Prevention Beat

January 4, 2010

New Years Resolution: Increasing ROI for Worksite Wellness Programs

The turning of the calendar to a new year brings with it the tradition of setting new years resolutions. With health care costs rising individuals and businesses will be looking to ways to prevent further rise in costs. A preventive health care plan can go a long way in doing just that. But like new years resolutions need to produce lifestyle behavior changes, preventive health care plans (worksite wellness programs) are only good if they produce lasting changes that contribute to the ROI.

Here are 5 strategies to enhance the return on investment of worksite wellness programs (in economically challenging times):

1. Tap in to your insurance plans willingness to pay for wellness. Most insurance companies have a preventive health benefit for their members. These benefits often offer members, spouses and dependents $200-500 dollars to be used for age and gender appropriate cancer screenings such as Pap smears, PSA and mammograms. These benefits can also include routine immunizations and annual physical exams. Because they are a benefit, they cost your employees very little, most don’t even require office co-pays but can go a long way in decreasing health care costs if cancer and other serious illnesses are prevented. If your worksite does not have a preventive health benefit, talk to your benefits department or insurance company.

2. Create a benefit plan design so wellness can be cost neutral. Participants get rewarded for making healthier choices while non-participants get slightly punished. The goal is to get everyone to participate, but that never happens. There are always some employees who will refuse to do much to improve their health. These employees will have dramatically higher health care costs over time and it’s not unreasonable to expect them to pay a bit more.

3. Implement worksite policies and environmental changes that support healthy living. There is a large body of evidence that suggests that worksites that have policies and environments that support healthy behaviors have healthier employees. Work with your leadership to implement changes in all the policies and environments at your workplace that discourage healthy living.

4. Use the right wellness message to increase participation, improve morale and enhance engagement. The way we communicate will determine how successful our wellness programs will be. Use the right communication messages. Worksite wellness programs have a dual outcome. They can transform lives by improving health and they can impact a worksite’s bottom line. Because these programs accomplish two things, we need to be careful how they are communicated. When communicating with employees about wellness programs, think like an employee. Do your employees really care about how wellness programs are going to improve the company bottom line? Not really, employees care about what’s in it for them, so tell them. Use communication messages that are important to your employees, not your employer. Tell them how their lives will be better. When you communicate with positive, employee-directed messages, you will have an impact on morale and the savings will come.

5. Make use of all your free community resources. There are lots of great community resources that you can use to supplement your wellness activities and you should make the most of them— some examples are: the American Cancer Society, the CDC, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association to name a few…

A healthy workforce is critical to an employer's ability to compete in today's economy. Ultimately, a healthier, more productive workforce can help drive a healthier economy. Start 2010 on a healthy path by learning how to implement a wellness program for your employees that will help them accomplish their new years resolutions but will also contribute to your ROI.

In response to our client’s interests in promoting employee health at an affordable rate, OHS-COMPCARE offers both on-site clinical facilities and access to urgent care. We have 30 years experience in developing and managing on-site medical departments uniquely designed to the employer’s specific interests. We offer preventive screening programs and lunch and learns all designed to help you guide your employees to being healthy, wiser healthcare consumers and more productive employees. Fore more information please contact our client services department at 816-559-6320.

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***We are now open Saturdays at our Independence location from 9am – 1pm to serve your occupational medicine and urgent care needs. Our Independence location is open 5pm – 9pm Monday – Friday to serve your after hour needs as well***

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We currently have H1N1 flu vaccine and seasonal flu vaccine available at all of our clinical facilities. Walk-ins are welcome!

*Please feel free to forward this information to any member of management in your company who would benefit from it.*

To view the Tip of the Week in Spanish please visit our Tip of the Week library at http://www.ohscompcare.com/totw/.

To learn more about services OHS-COMPCARE has to offer, contact our Client Services Team at (816) 561-2105 option 1 or by e-mail at customerservice@ohscompcare.com. You can also visit us at www.ohscompcare.com.

Why choose us? Because OHS-COMPCARE has a physician on call 24/7/365 days a year to respond to our client's needs.

OHS-COMPCARE now featuring Adult Quick Care has seven (7) area clinical facilities:

Independence Clinical Facility	Johnson County Clinical Facility	St. Joseph Clinical Facility	Grandview Clinical Facility
19000 E. Eastland Center Crt, St. 200	10415 Lackman Road	904 Edmond Street	13830 S Us Highway 71
Independence, MO 64055	Lenexa, KS 66219	St. Joseph, MO 64501	Grandview, MO 64030
816-478-9299	913-495-9905	816-233-7702	816-761-4664
After Hours Available 5-9pm M-F *Now open Saturday 9am – 1pm

KCMO/Broadway Clinical Facility	KCMO/Front Street Clinical Facility	Wyandotte County Clinical Facility
1650 Broadway	6501 East Commerce, Suite 110	1333 Meadowlark Lane, Suite 200
Kansas City, MO 64108	Kansas City, MO 64120	Kansas City, KS 66102
816-842-2020	816-483-5550	913-596-2774

Adult Quick Care provides Urgent Care to Adults and Adolescents Age 14 and Older.

No appointment is necessary at Adult Quick Care.

When you are sick or have a new injury, Adult Quick Care is your affordable, time saving choice for quality care.

To learn more about Adult Quick Care please call 816-559-6320 or visit www.adultquickcare.com.