Managed Healthcare Executive - February 2009 - (Page 16) { SPECIAL REPORT } Workplace Wellness MCOs must commit to wellness, starting with their own employees By Tracey Walker market shifts more and more toward prevention strategies, says Paul Veronneau, partner, health industries advisory, and leader of the payer practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). “At the same time, it is important for them, as health services companies, to lead by example, by creating a culture of wellness within their own organization and helping their own employees improve their health and well being,” he says. “They also want to acquire data to support that they are doing it right, and use that data to help them prepare and build a business case for why other companies should do the same thing, and to reinforce that they would be a good partner.” WHAT EMPLOYERS WANT Smart employers are aiming for better health status and functionality for their workers, which also translates into increased productivity, says MHE Editorial Advisor Sean Sullivan, JD, president and CEO of the Institute for Health & Productivity Management, Scottsdale, Ariz. “Health plans nally are starting to become what health maintenance organizations were supposed to be from their inception because their customers—the employers—have concluded that the only way to start controlling or managing costs is to get ahead of illness instead of waiting for it to happen,” Sullivan says. V isit the Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) workplace in Durham, N.C., and you’ll notice a tobacco-free campus, onsite clinic, tness centers, healthy choices in the cafeteria, and competitions that encourage employees to be physically active. Testing wellness programs on its own employees not only helps BCBSNC earn credibility, but also gives the insurer an opportunity to re ne its programs for its employer clients. “We want to make sure that the operational details actually work and prove that the results are there, so when we go to market, our programs are re ned and ready to use,” says Don Bradley, MD, BCBSNC chief medical o cer and senior vice president of healthcare services. “When it comes to workplace wellness, we have been walking our own talk.” The workplace wellness programs, which began in 2004, have not only shown results in BCBSNC’s 4,900 employees but in its employer group population, as well. “One thing we know from following our employees’ data year over year is that we have made signi cant strides with four key metrics: smoking, blood pressure, cholesterol and weight,” Dr. Bradley says. As employers themselves, MCOs need to demonstrate that they are committed to wellness as a key health management strategy, especially as the 16 FEBRUARY 2009 “What Employers Want From Health Insurers—Now,” a recent survey from PwC’s Health Research Institute, con rms what Sullivan says. Employers are interested in managing rising costs through wellness and disease management programs rather than continuing to shift costs to employees—a tactic that has reached its limit with the American workforce. Larger employers place greater importance on wellness programs than small companies do, according to the PwC research. Nearly 80% of large companies surveyed said wellness programs were important to them, compared with 50% of small companies. Both small and large, however, said they were dissatised with wellness services—particularly health risk analyses—currently being offered by insurers. Roughly one in four large employers were not satis ed with the e ectiveness of their wellness programs, and nearly twice as many (50%) small employers said they were dissatised, according to the report. Nevertheless, according to the survey, two-thirds of employers see value in working wellness initiatives into their overall personnel strategies and supporting them with incentives to participate. “In 2009, health plans will begin to play a more active role in wellness program design, tools and support as a way to combat soaring healthcare costs and encourage healthy behavior,” Veronneau says. “An abundance of opportunity exists for health plans to innovate in this area and create new programs for employers.” SEEK OPPORTUNITIES One of the key growth opportunities that is emerging for health insurers is data mining. “Increasingly, employers want to identify the biggest health problems for employees as well as opportunities for health improvement by using detailed data around health status,” Veronneau says. Employers are beginning to look to
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.