Wellness Plan

A Wellness plan significantly reduces your out-of-pocket expenses for health services, essential to your company and your employee including dental, vision, pharmacy, health clubs and Flex spending accounts. A Wellness Program should cover education of what your company offers for employee benefits, motivational support, incentive plans and clear guidelines of expectations.

• Employee Benefits, many companies assume employees understand their company benefits. The majority of employees never read through the appropriate paperwork to understand what benefits their company offers. A simple educational meeting can between Human Resources and employees can lower your health care costs. Employees may not realize that they are offered a health club membership or that they can use pre-taxed dollars toward massage, nutritional counseling or weight-loss programs. Education can be a great 1^st step.

• Motivational Support, and Incentives Plans, people in general like incentives, even if it is something they are doing for their own health. Creating a incentive such as for ever pound lost within 6 months the employee earns $1 up to 25 pounds. Employees in walking programs can be given a pedometer to track their progress.

• Expectations for employees could include joining a weight-loss program with the agreement of participating for 6 weeks and if the agreement is not keep the employee pays for the costs of the program. What results will the company expect in order to supply the benefit.

Create a New Wellness Program

• Information gathering to include

•  Health insurance claims review information

• Demo graphics analysis

• Management & workers surveys

• Historic patterns of illness, accidents, etc.

• Current health benefits plans

•  Research most beneficial/least beneficial treatment programs currently being provided

Plan should consist of

• Management education

• Voluntary wellness team for internal morale and positive reception

• Assessment of major focuses in response to information gathering

• Which categories should be approached first

•  Which categories should have the largest impact

• Creating a clear vision of desired outcome

• Setting up record keeping to record company wide improvements

• Clear contact information

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Educational Facts

•  50% of health care expenditures are life style related, which makes them at many levels preventable.

• 3 lifestyle behaviors that effect costs are smoking, poor diet, and lack of exercise. These factors are the major cause of healthcare cost increase.

• $5,000 on average is spent per employee in the U.S. but less than 5% of that is medical screening & prevention.

• Healthcare cost related to sick leave, disability cost & worker compensation can be cut approximately 25% with the use well designed wellness programs.

• The health care related costs for a person that are obese are approximately $1,244 higher than a person within a healthy weight range.

• Obesity increases Type 2 Diabetes; 20% of all health care in the U.S. is directly related persons with Diabetes.

• In the past 10 years the annual ROI for worksite wellness programs; for $1 spent, $6 saved.

• Fit employees have higher morals, lower job turnover, fewer accidents, fewer sick days & are more productive.

• A healthy stable employee base is the heart of a successful company.

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Benefits for Instituting a Wellness Plan

•  Education on proper nutrition & water intake

• Increasing level of physical exercise

• Reduce stress

• Lower blood pressure

• Lower cholesterol

• Stop smoking

Programs that aim to lower Healthcare cost need to address risky behaviors. Employee focus should be assisting in achieving & maintaining optimal health.

Expectations

• Lower Healthcare costs

• Improve productivity

• Decrease absenteeism

• Reduce Workers Compensation expenses

• Boost moral

• Increase employee retention

• Support recruitment efforts

• Enhance Company’s image

• Happier, Healthier employees

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