PERSPECTIVES, Indiana Business Wire

Ten Intelligent Health Measures Smart Companies Should Employ

By: Daniel Krajnovich - Chief Executive Officer, UnitedHealthcare(Indiana)

Category: Healthcare

Even smart companies have one worry that seems unsolvable – the rising cost of health care spending per employee. With $1.4 trillion in health care consumed annually, affordability is more difficult, yet more imperative, to deliver.




A strong focus on preventive care may not solve the health care crisis, but it is one important way employers and employees can work together to make health care more affordable. Preventive care leads to lower health care costs and healthy employees who are more productive, exhibit less absenteeism, live healthier and longer, and add more vitality to their work.

Though lifestyle choices are ultimately determined by individuals, companies can take important measures to support and encourage preventative health behavior among their employees.

Here are 10 smart ways employers can focus on creating a health-conscious mindset in the work environment to better control health care spending:

1. Educate employees about health care costs and trends. Most people are unaware of the total cost of health care. It is estimated that American health care consumers only pay between 5 and 30 percent of their actual health costs.

2. Frequent communication of health care facts to employees creates sustainable awareness and momentum for change.

3. Invite local health care experts to talk to your employees about back injuries, obesity, diet, diabetes or sleep disorders. Host health fairs for employees and invite medical experts to offer information and preventive screenings – nurses, nutritionists, wellness coaches, message therapists and other community specialists.

4. Adopt a health plan with strong financial incentives, such as consumer-directed Health Savings (HSAs) or Health Reimbursement (HRAs) accounts. Both plans must be coupled with a high-deductible health plan and offer different advantages to employers and employees. Accounts such as these are proven tools to engage your employees in their health care consumption.

5. Offer a smoking cessation program. And of course, if it isn't already, make your office a "no-smoking environment."

6. Fully engage employees in total health care cost management by asking them to make thoughtful decisions about their health and health care expenses. Thinking about health care as a purchase will require a mental shift. Most people spend weeks researching the purchase of a car or television, but then seek health care with little insight or knowledge. Employees need to know how rising health care costs directly impact them – i.e. lower raises, fewer new hires, global competitiveness, etc. – as well as the bottom line of the business. Empowering them to make some of their own choices about health care insurance also changes the traditional paradigm.

7. Promote the use of the Internet to keep employees informed of personal health care issues. Some health insurance companies and online resources provide information on best practices, health libraries, wellness tips, and other features to help consumers better understand their health.

8. Wellness is smart investment. Experts suggest that for every $1 invested during the first year of a wellness program, a savings of between $3 and $5 results. Host annual flu shots in the office. Sanitize phones, doorknobs and high-contact surfaces during cold and flu season. Encourage fitness and healthly eating.

9. Be creative with fitness. For example, host a “step-a-thon” competition in which employees use pedometers to collect the most 'steps' walked during lunch hour for a month. Create a program to use stairs instead of elevators. Start a walking club. Pedometers are popular and successful in encouraging healthy behavior because success is easy to see.

10. Be conscious of office choices like vending machines and office snacks. Opt for healthier company-hosted breakfasts, luncheons and potlucks.

There is no single solution to the rising cost of health care, just as there is no single factor contributing to it. However, it’s certain that changing consumer behaviors and promoting healthier lifestyles will have a positive impact.