Introduction
Over the last several decades, an epidemic of “lifestyle diseases” has developed in the United States. In response, employers, in an attempt to increase productivity and decrease health insurance costs, have created wellness programs to combat the growing trend of unhealthy living habits. This paper will discuss the different components of a wellness program, explore a typical employer’s overall wellness strategy, and analyze incentives and trends in common wellness programs in America.
The frequency of unhealthy lifestyle choices such as inactivity, poor nutrition, tobacco use and alcohol consumption are the driving factors of today’s chronic diseases: diabetes, heart disease, and chronic pulmonary conditions. These diseases have become a major issue and burden as they lead to decreased quality of life, premature death and disability, and increased health care cost and premiums. Furthermore, while chronic diseases were once thought to be restricted to older age groups, younger generations are now becoming more affected. This shift not only adds to the economic burden but also contributes to the loss of productivity due to absence from work and also reduced performance while at work.
Background
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified four key behaviors – inactivity, poor nutrition, tobacco use, and frequent alcohol consumption – as primary causes of chronic disease in the United States, resulting in an increase of diabetes, heart disease, and chronic pulmonary conditions. These chronic conditions have become a major burden in the United States, as they lead to decreased quality of life and premature death and disability. The growing concern for the American people is the cost of treating ...
... middle of paper ...
...on Programs.” American Journal of Health Promotion. 18:1-6, iii, 2004.
Volpp KG, et. al., “A randomized, controlled trial of financial incentives for smoking cessation,” N Engl. J Med. 2009; 360(7):699-709; see also, Volpp KG, et. al., “P4P4P: an agenda for research on pay-for-performance for patients,” Health Affairs (Millwood), 2009, 28(1): 206-214 and Finkelstein EA, et. al., “A pilot study testing the effect of different levels of financial incentives on weight loss among overweight employees,” J. Occup. Environ. Med., 2007, 49(9):981-989.
Willingham, Rhonda. "Using incentives within the new regulatory world of the ACA to improve employee wellness and productivity." Employee Benefit Plan Review Oct. 2013: 7+. General OneFile. Web. 2 Dec. 2013
Workplace Wellness Programs Study Final Report, Santa Monica: RAND Corporation, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.rand.org/
‘Saving Lives: Our Healthier Nation’ is a white paper which was initiated in 1999. The Department of Health (DOH) ordered strategies aimed at reducing ill-health with specific attention to cancer, coronary heart disease and stroke, accidents, and mental health. £21billion over 10years was given to the NHS to ensure a target of 20% reduction in deaths associated with these conditions.
Over the last several years, the United States has experienced the emergence of countless lifestyle based illnesses. We have seen an increase of inactivity, poor nutrition, an increase of tobacco use, and more frequent alcohol consumption; Americans are living unhealthy lifestyles that are surely factors contributing to the pervasiveness of chronic diseases. Chronic diseases use to be seen as problems that older generations faced, but over the past several years the United States’ working age group has become a main target. For example, Americans are experiencing higher rates of diabetes, and heart disease. Conditions like these only lead to a diminished quality of life, could possibly lead to shorter life spans, disability, and quite possibly in the long run increased health care costs. Businesses are also impacted by an employees lifestyle decisions; absenteeism and presenteeism.
The people in the workplace can be categorize into two groups: the employer and the employees. The employees work for their employer and in turn the employer has the duty and responsibility to ensure that the minimum safety requirements are met. However, employers are not required to provide health insurance benefits to their employees. More often than not, providing health insurance benefits is very costly to the employer and in an attempt to mitigate the costs, employers’ encourage employee participation in various healthy lifestyle programs and initiatives as well as providing incentives for their participation in such programs. These kinds of action are not always met with enthusiasm, some find it unreasonable to be expected to do so on their own time to change their lifestyle to suit their employers.
The cost and administrative burden of providing health care benefits to employees has grown rapidly in the last several years, and organizations have opted to cheaper means of doing this by resorting to CDHPs programs that are little bit cheaper when using deductible health insurance plans. This has led to the hope of healthier generation in the near future as the cost of health services would be manageable (Buntin, Damberg, Haviland & Kapur, 2006).
...nt. Wellness programs in workplaces have also become increasingly popular. These programs have not only demonstrated to be clinically effective but also cost effective. Companies are willing to invest to improve their productivity and decrease insurance cost. These programs will continue to grow in all fields and will require the need for more ND’s to participate. Promoting these programs can only lead to positive improvements from a patient to a corporate perspective.
The health of the American people lags behind those from other developed countries. Federal public health agencies have a wide range of responsibilities and functions which includes public health research, funding, and oversight of direct healthcare providers. It has been a long time since changes have been made to the way the federal government structures its health care roles and programs outside of Medicare and Medicaid (Trust, 2013). With healthcare reform on the horizon now is the time to invest time and money in prevention, not medicine, making it a top priority to improve health and prevent disease. Funding efforts at all levels of the public health continuum need to focus on developing programs aimed at such leading initiatives as tobacco cessation, improving nutrition, supplying safe workplaces, and increasing physical activity in all ages of the population. People should have equal access to quality preventative medicine and education.
This objective is important because there is evidence in the literature that PCPs offering smoking cessation interventions in primary care can have a significant positive impact on a smoker’s likelihood of attempting to quit (Ong, Zhou and Sung, 2011). Receiving advice from a primary care provider (PCP) to quit smoking increased the likelihood that a smoker will quit by a factor of 1.3. Even more interesting is that receiving physician treatment for smoking, such a medication, counseling or referral, boosts the odds that that smoker will quit by 2.2 (Fiore, Jaen, Baker et al, 2008). Evidence also suggests that such brief interventions are cost effective (Fiore et al, 2008).
Disease management, as defined by the Care Continuum Alliance (CCA), 2011, is a multi-disciplinary, comprehensive, continuous, and coordinated method to achieving desired outcomes by utilizing preventive measures and evidence-based practice guidelines to alter the natural course of the disease; therefore, improving the overall health for a population. These outcomes include processes of reducing healthcare costs while improving the quality of life for individuals by preventing or minimizing the efforts of a disease through integrative care (CCA, 2011). Program success relies that a comprehensive system be in place that incorporates the patient, physician, and health plan into one system with one common goal (Menon, 2002).
One of the major reasons for such high rates of obesity is in the workplace. Many people have little time to spare for healthy habits because of work. Having a lunch hour means that for some people, the fastest, easiest way to get lunch is to go to a fast food restaurant. And then most people wake up fairly early to go to work, then are exhausted when they get home, meaning they won’t take the time to exercise or cook a healthy meal. They wind up going home to sit on the couch and watch TV, which is partly what they did at work all day. Many people are sitting down all day. They don’t have...
Introduction: Obesity is one of the nation 's fastest-growing health problems. This video show that there are problems caused by people who most organizations and businesses have policies about accommodating the obese. The corporate world is completely full of heavyset employees, reason of obesity. Corporate wellness is the key to solve this problem of employees in Florida.
With the health care costs reaching high number there is no wonder we have a large number of absenteeism. So many wait to the last possible painstaking work day to decide to see a doctor about their aliment, and all of that could be prevented. Preventing oneself to have to take time off from work is one way to keep costs low. There are so many areas that need to be addressed when it comes to what is going to slow us down as a company. According to estimates by Dr. Jaime Claudio(1991), a corporate wellness consultant for Health Plus, a provider of health-care insurance, a comprehensive eating awareness and weight- management program designed to improve long-term habits could generate an 80% reduction in the incidence of potential problems caused by obesity in the workplace. These problems include hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and diminished work efficiency. Obesity is not the only eating disorder that is a problem, there is bulimia and anorexia. Smoking, drinking, substance abuse, and stress are problems that are brought into the workplace and stop productivity. We have to be aware of issues that are there but are not usually thought of as an illness.
Workers of every organization need to embrace the culture of living a healthy lifestyle rather than implementing specialized health programs and insurance plans (Goetzel, 2012). Coca-Cola Company initially perceived health and well-being as only integrated into the safety programs that employees are given. The company needs to distinguish between health and wellness from safety concerns. Many governments have encouraged wellness programs through the Affordable Care Act; this raises the legal limits on the penalties imposed on the employees by employers for the health-contingent wellness plans (Baicker,
Hays, Scott. "Pros & Cons of Pay for Performance." Workforce 78, Number 2 (February 1997): 68-72
del Bueno, D. J., & Bridges, P. B. (1985). Providing Incentives While Reducing Costs: An Employee Suggestion Plan. Nursing Economic$, 3(4), 212-215.
Cichelli, D. (Jul/Aug 2006) Incentives that really motivate. Sales and marketing management, 158 (6), 25.