Wellness Programs
Choosing the Program That's Right for You & Your Clients
by Trudy Golobic

The American public is angry, frustrated, and ready for some relief from rising healthcare costs. Insurance brokers often get caught in the middle. It's not your fault that rates continue to escalate, but you're the messenger of the rate hikes. In addition, it's getting harder to set yourself apart from the competition with fewer and fewer companies to quote.

So, what if you presented a whole new strategy for controlling healthcare costs that shows clients that you are on their side? Wellness programs may provide just the relief you are looking for.

Offering clients a program that reduces claims and keeps them healthier generates good will, increases retention, and improves the broker-client relationship. Many brokers are leaders in their communities. What better form of leadership than to show clients, colleagues, and neighbors that you are doing something about the healthcare crisis?

Wellness programs can bring added value to your product lines and provide a new source of revenue for you and your agency. They work with health, workers compensation, disability, and life insurance products. In the past, many corporate wellness programs were geared toward large end-users.

Today, companies can provide the same benefit to small business and individuals. Also, if you use an independent wellness provider, you can retain business even if the client moves to another broker for health, disability, or other product lines, which allows you to keep a foot in the door.

What to Look For In a Program

All sorts of wellness programs are out there. Below are a few things to consider when looking for a program that's right for you and your clients:

¥ Keep it simple: This is the cardinal rule. You're busy, your clients are busy, and their employees are busy. So, the program should be easy-to-use for all involved. You should have minimal work in enrollment and billing. If the program is simple, it's faster and easier to sell. It should also be easy for the employer to implement. For the user, the program can't be too complicated, require too much reading or form completion, or take too much time.

¥ Keep it affordable: It will be easier to package and resell the wellness program if it's priced reasonably. Wellness programs don't have to be expensive to be effective. Simple things often have big health effects, such as walking, eating a healthier diet, and learning to reduce stress.

¥ Start at the beginning: Many diet and exercise programs fail because they are too difficult to follow and aren't sustainable over the long term. An effective wellness program starts at a basic level and helps people develop a wellness foundation to build on over time. Again, think simple. A program that encourages people to walk and get outdoors can be a good beginning for physical exercise. Learning to phase in healthier foods and begin to manage stress are things that most people can do to stay healthy over the long term.

¥ Participation: Maximizing participation is the key to an effective wellness program. This applies across the board. More participation translates into more money for you if you are selling the program on a per-user basis. In order to get renewals, your clients should like the program and use it.

Maximizing Participation

The program can only help control the employer's benefit costs if employees participate. A program that is easy to follow sets people up for success and when they succeed, they are more likely to come back for more.

Wellness programs generally work best with incentives. The program should have some way to track participation. This helps the client administer incentive programs and calculate the return on investment. A complaint we hear frequently is that employers spend a lot of time and money implementing wellness programs, but have no idea if anyone is using them. In these days of tight budgets, a client is likely to cut a program if there is no proof of a benefit.

Trust is a big deal when it comes to healthcare. Some people won't participate in a program if they have to fill out a bunch of forms or worry about being profiled. In addition, if you are offering your clients a wellness program, they expect a wellness program, not a barrage of ads for the latest drugs, supplements, and gizmos.

If you are serious about helping your clients cut healthcare costs, look for a program that isn't marketing expensive drugs or encouraging them to use more medical services. Wellness is about staying healthy in the first place. This is something that people have to learn to do for themselves on a daily basis. The key is getting people to take care of their health, which is the real health insurance.

The Internet

Internet delivery can have many advantages. First, it allows people to get their content whenever and wherever they want. It can be fun, inexpensive, and reach a large audience, all of which increases participation.

Online programs allow corporate employers to deliver a benefit throughout the organization. This can be particularly attractive for clients with multiple offices nationwide or worldwide. Online delivery also allows you to access the families, which is where many claims originate. The program will be much more effective if you can get the family involved.

You can link some wellness programs to your Website. This keeps people coming to your site year-around establishes your presence in the wellness arena.

Brokers are in the perfect position to play a significant role in working toward a healthier demographic. The incoming workforce threatens to be more overweight and unhealthy than ever. ItÕs time to do what we can to reverse these trends. Wellness is good for business, for employees, for families, and for the healthcare system.

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Trudy Golobic is the CEO and co-founder of Azente Wellness. Azente develops and provides lifestyle-oriented multimedia wellness programs. Trudy has been interested in health and nutrition for more than 30 years. She has worked as a writer and researcher for nutrition guru, Gary Null, and has studied extensively in the areas of wellness, alternative healthcare, and fitness. Trudy is also admitted to practice law in New York and California. She developed a series of seminars for lawyers focusing on the connections between wellness and legal ethics. The seminars have been approved by the California State Bar for MCLE legal ethics credit. For more information, visit www.azente.com.