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News Room - Recent News INSIDE BUSINESS (HAMPTON ROADS)
Monday August 28, 2006
ERICK SORICELLI
The price of staying fit
Wellness programs try to lower costs
oyce Hynes is in a weight-loss program because of a reason literally passing her by. “I need to build up my endurance and catch up with my granddaughter,” she said.
Hynes, a music practitioner at Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center in Portsmouth, is one of nearly 15 students enrolled in Lighten Up!, a 20-week weight-loss class held at Maryview and Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News. The program, in its second year, is offered to Bon Secours employees and the public, and gives exercise and nutrition lessons.
These days a worker who notes a health or nutrition class posted, a gym in the workplace or healthier vending machine snacks in the break room is likely witnessing an employer-installed wellness program.
Some say the benefits reach beyond lowering costs. “Employees are going to be more assertive, with fewer sick days utilized by an individual who is more actively fit,” said Stephen Jobe, a Bon Secours exercise physiologist and a Lighten Up! instructor.
The costs for employers widely vary, but the aim is generally the same: to lower employee health care premiums and usage, in the wake of rising costs.
“You don’t have to be a large company with deep pockets,” said Debbie Rowley, director of administration for The Pinnacle Group, a Virginia Beach employee benefits consulting firm.The company hosted a seminar, “Corporate Wellness in Action,” last Friday for its clients and other interested businesses.
“You can implement an employee assistance program relatively inexpensively, for less than $4,000 a year,” Rowley said.
Employers who don’t elect a full program can instead offer incentives, such as payroll deductions or gym membership discounts. “It depends on the priorities of upper management and how much importance they place on it,” Rowley said.
Companies will typically see a return on investment of $3 to $7 per dollar spent on a program, said Dr. Skip Walker, medical director of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Virginia. Employers can either administer the programs themselves, or rely on outside providers and companies to do so.
At Bon Secours, Lighten Up! is one of several wellness programs the health care system sponsors. The cost for the class is $299, but employees are eligible for a $50 discount as a payroll deduction.
Barbara Powell, retired from the Department of Motor Vehicles headquarters in Richmond, enrolled in Lighten Up! after hearing about it from a neighbor.
Going into the program’s fourth week, Powell has learned so far that “I need to eat a certain portion of carbohydrates and proteins, in order to lose weight,” she said.
In theory, employers may jump at the chance to lower health care costs. But implementation – and staying within privacy laws – are the tricky parts.
Walker, Anthem’s medical director, said companies should consider patronage before jumping into a large-scale program, such as an in-house gym.
“These have not been quite as successful as everybody would hope,” he said. “What you want to do with programs is implement the total population of people.”
In that respect, employers are finding that only a select group takes advantage of on-site gyms, Walker said.
Like other health insurance companies, Anthem offers a slate of corporate wellness programs. One, Time Well Spent, breaks down information by benefits, participation and health topics.
Depending on the makeup of a company’s staff, trying to get employees to be more health-conscious can be easier said than done. “The companies that have the most difficulty have rising costs, a younger population and a high turnover rate,” Walker said. For example, if a staff majority is under 40, and has 50 percent turnover, “trying to get employees interested in health and wellness is not going to be successful,” he said.
The legal lines blur when companies require employees to participate in health programs. In that case, it can become a tug-of-war between the veracity of employers’ cost-cutting attempts versus an employee’s right to privacy.
For example, Weyco Inc., an Okemos, Mich., medical benefits administrator, made national headlines in 2004 when it created a no-smoking policy, even outside of work. To ensure the policy stuck, the company required employees to take a smoking test. Four refused and were fired.
Other companies nationwide have followed suit in requiring certain programs, but Rowley, with The Pinnacle Group, thinks there’s a more effective model.
“To me, a smoking cessation program is a more positive way to help employees,” she said. “A company that helps employees keep it in control, that’s just a more positive application than saying, ‘If you don’t do it, I’m going to fire you.’”
The right to privacy also comes into play when employers administer health risk assessments (HRAs), a general questionnaire of a person’s current and previous behavior. In such cases, employers rely on third-party firms to collect data and report back aggregate, or group, results.
Individual participants taking an Anthem-sponsored HRA sign waivers acknowledging their information will be available to Anthem and not the employer. The information is used only to study members’ behavior, Walker said, in efforts to identify new programs.
But in order for it to have some effect, companies can’t just let an HRA stand alone. “There has to be a back way to show where you’re going to see the benefits,” he said. “In an HRA, the only thing that’s available to the employer is aggregate data.”
The Virginia Business Coalition on Health supports company wellness programs. It has given out Wellness in the Workplace awards to 24 employers thus far and has a standing wellness committee that meets six times a year.
VBCH member surveys have placed wellness in the top four items of interest for employers, said Barbara Wallace, the VBCH’s president and CEO. |
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Bon Secours Hampton Roads Health System is a leading health
care organization known for providing care for the whole
person with grace and clinical distinction. Bon Secours
brings together a network of hospitals, primary care practices,
ambulatory care sites and continuing care facilities to
provide quality health care services to the residents of
Hampton Roads. Bon Secours, which employs more than 4,500,
includes: Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center, Bon Secours
Maryview Medical Center, Mary Immaculate Hospital, Bon Secours
Health Center at Harbour View, Bon Secours Maryview Nursing
Care Center and St. Francis Nursing Center.
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