Alternative Health
New Thinking on Wellness Plans
by Tim Bireley

Employers are beginning to find that making employees pay more for health benefits may not be the answer to rising healthcare costs. Instead, they’re taking a longer view of health promotion and applying it to benefit design.

Sixty-three percent of large U.S. employers are gearing up aggressive, multi-year plans to improve employee health through a variety of means, including education, condition management, and data analysis, according to Hewitt Associates. They are using holistic healthcare programs to drive behavior change in their diverse workforce, according to Jim Winkler, who leads Hewitt’s Health Management Consulting practice.
Some employers are reducing co-payments for the prescription drugs that treat chronic illnesses and help prevent expensive hospital admissions. Other firms are adding benefits that promote worker health and wellness.

Most employers think wellness programs are worthwhile, according to a survey by The Guardian Life Insurance Company. Large companies are nearly universal (99%) in this belief, while mid-sized (90%) and small employers (82%) express strong favorable opinions as well. Yet only 57% of small businesses have implemented a wellness plan, in contrast to the actions of their mid-sized (79%) and large employer (90%) counterparts.

Why the disparity? Is it that difficult for small businesses to implement a wellness plan? It doesn’t have to be. You can help your small and mid-sized clients develop a strong wellness plan at a low cost or even no cost. It may not be as sophisticated as what larger companies offer but it can send a strong signal to workers that the company cares and wants to help meet their long-term health needs.
First, realize that a wellness program is a long-term commitment. Your clients may have to communicate healthy living messages for several years before they see any improvement in worker health. Human behavior, like human health, does not change overnight. Stress this to your clients.

Before implementing a wellness program, advise your clients to take a baseline measurement of worker health through voluntary health risk assessments. This service is likely to be available through their health insurance provider or through a local clinic. Employers may offer cash incentives and other rewards to encourage workers to take health risk assessments. At the same time, they should assure workers that their personal information will be kept private.

Once you know what kind of health challenges you’re dealing with, it’s time to put together a plan with your client. Parts of the plan can be as simple as aggregating Websites that help employees understand and manage their health. Such sites may include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the American Heart Association. You may also wish to print out flyers from these sites and make them available on a health information rack at your client’s worksite.

Your client may also promote wellness by ask-ing workers to make small changes in their physical routines, which can add up to great health improvements over time. Here are some ideas you may wish to suggest to your clients:
• Encourage employees to take the stairs when-ever possible. Have an artist or schoolchildren paint the company stairwell in bright, cheerful colors with wellness-oriented themes.
• Promote walk-a-thons, such as the March of Dimes’ WalkAmerica. Tell employees this gives them a chance to combine civic duty with exercise. Make it fun.
• Give workers an extra vacation day, a spa treatment, or a gift certificate for engaging in healthy behaviors.
• Encourage them to get cholesterol and blood pressure screenings regularly, perhaps as part of an annual routine around their birthday or other special anniversary.
• Get rid of unhealthy snacks in the vending machine. Replace the candy bowl with fruit.
• If your client does all of these things consist-ently and sticks with it, the message will come across that they care about the health of their employees and they take it seriously.
Another way to adopt a wellness plan is to promote wellness services that are already included in your client’s regular health plan. Have your client remind employees regularly of flu shots and screenings that are paid for by insurance and do so in the context of promoting the company wellness plan.

More insurers are adding complementary and alternative medicine benefits to their plans; explore whether these are available in your client’s health plan since they can be valuable components of a wellness plan. Many states mandate such treatments. For example, 47 states mandate chiropractic in state-regulated plans and 10 states mandate acupuncture. Ninety one percent of large employers cover chiropractic treatment, 33% cover acupuncture/acupressure, and 20% cover massage therapy, according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
Such benefits have also made their way into plans for small and mid-sized employers.

A study by the National Institutes of Health revealed that older adults can boost immunity to the shingles virus by practicing tai chi, a traditional Chinese aerobic and meditative activity. Other studies revealed acupuncture’s ability to provide pain relief for a number of conditions including osteoarthritis of the knee.

Thirty-six percent of American adults use complimentary and alternative medicine, according to a 2002 study by the National Center for Health Statistics. The per-centage leaps to 62% if you include prayer and megavitamin therapy in the definition. Back pain is the most frequent ailment people wish to treat with complimentary and alternative medicine. Legions of people have reported chiropractic to be particularly effective in that regard.

More employees will become physically active and fit if employers respect their individuality when building a health and wellness plan. Someone who would never tie a shoelace to attend an aerobics class might gladly meet for tai chi in the park. Other people would rather combat stress by taking yoga class than by lifting weights.
Employees can use their flexible spending accounts or health savings accounts to pay for complimentary and alternative medicine, including acupuncture and chiropractic.
Your clients have many options for tailoring a low-cost and effective wellness plan. It’s all a matter of deciding on a message, communicating it regularly, and taking advantage of wellness features offered in their health plan. Then stick with it. A commitment to health is a long-term proposition.
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Tim Bireley is VP of Group Medical, Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. He has more than 25 years of experience at various health insurance companies. He holds a BS degree in Accounting from Ball State University in Muncie, IN, and an MBA degree from the University of Phoenix.