Corporate Employee Health Screenings - Innovative Wellness Solutions


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Population Risk Management ™

Worksite wellness programs have been in existence for more than 25 years. Driven by organizations that wanted to provide a better workplace for employees, these programs were viewed as a perk more than a business strategy. However, within the last five years, there has been substantive recognition that wellness programs are one of the last options to take cost out of the Health Care system.

How is wellness the answer?

The only remaining variable of consequence to control the costs for employer-provided Health Benefits is the proper utilization of an organizations Health plan. Plan costs are not going down and the fees to administer those plans are rising. Lack of understanding by employees and their dependents on what benefits they have and how to use these benefits continually drives costs upward. Take the example of the employee who does not have a Primary Care Physician and uses the Emergency Room as a doctor's office. Or the employee or the spouse of the employee who does not realize that the health plan covers pre-natal care? In both of these cases, lack of understanding and improper utilization of available benefits are key elements to our nation's runaway health costs.

And, what about the simple step of preventative care? This is wellness at its most basic form. Proactive health care will decrease unwanted plan utilization by advocating and encouraging employees to engage in positive lifestyle choices to find their own best health. In addition to lifestyle choices, preventative "wellness" care must include health compliance matters; are eligible employees and dependents getting their mammograms, PSA tests, colonoscopies, etc. on an age and gender prescribed basis? Do employees and dependents have Primary Care Physicians (PCP) and are they having annual exams? Do they know what tests to ask their PCP to perform and do they know what the results of those tests mean? All of this care is dependent upon health education and benefits coverage, which most people say exists outside the scope of wellness programming. Or does it?

Wellness cannot be a silo-ed effort.

Coordination with all the health tools available to employees and dependents is critical to the success of a wellness program. At every turn, it is the responsibility of a wellness program to communicate, advocate and promote all of the health tools available. In fact today, many companies in the United States have made worksite wellness programs a major priority tied to corporate strategy to effect positive change not only in health costs, but worker's compensation claims, absentee rates, retention, recruiting and overall productivity. Human Resources officers should recognize wellness as an indispensable, tangible program that is strategic in approach, fully integrated with the overall health plan and the link to a complete continuum of care for all employees and dependents.

How do you build a comprehensive strategy?

While no organization can expect to adopt and promote a comprehensive wellness program overnight, the IWS Population Risk Management� strategy offers employers a roadmap of techniques to advance employee health and position themselves for success. As the term roadmap suggests, reaching the destination�a healthier and more productive workforce�requires a journey of incremental steps that will yield incremental successes.

Rising healthcare costs present a core business challenge. U.S. healthcare spending approached $2.25 trillion in 2007, more than 16% of the gross domestic product. A 2008 Health Affairs study drawing on interviews with 1,927 public and private employers showed that average annual premiums increased 5 percent to $4,704 for single coverage and $12,680 for family coverage.

Many organizations have successfully addressed key healthcare challenges by investing in an employee health strategy. While individuals have the greatest control over their own health, employers have a vested interest in promoting good health and a unique capability to do so by providing a healthy environment and by offering powerful incentives and disincentives through workplace benefits and compensation programs. From a health perspective, value is defined as the full health-related benefit achieved for the worker and the employer�in terms of medical cost savings and health-related lost time and lost productivity�for the money spent. The ability to add value to the business through better management of employee health may be the largest untapped source of competitive advantage.

Innovative Wellness Solution is in the business of managing risk, the future health risk of your employees and dependants, and by virtue, the future financial risk of your company. Through our Population Risk Management ™ (PRM) approach, IWS assesses risk that is specific to your organization, consults on benefits plan design to support our program, and develops a long range plan with wellness as the cornerstone of the plan design and execution. Metrics and measurements for return on investment are developed, and expectations are clearly defined as part of the overall strategy. For more information, please feel free to contact IWS.