Competition and Creativity Can Contol Healthcare Costs

In an effort to hold down healthcare costs, employers are turning to wellness programs to help employees get healthier and prevent traumatic illness.

Amanda Greene, a certified health education specialist with Valley Preferred, works with companies to help them implement a program to fit their specific needs, she said. Valley Preferred is a preferred provider organization or PPO based in Salisbury Township.

“Increase in the level of commitment in activity has quadrupled in the last three to four year,” she said.

One employee with a heart attack and hospital stay for surgery could incur a hospital bill for as much as $250,000, Greene said. This expense could affect a company's insurance premiums, while possibly requiring a replacement during the employee’s medical leave. Even before a traumatic illness strikes, health issues can affect an employee’s productivity, she said.

Through health and wellness programs, “we will never know how many heart attacks we would have prevented,” Greene said, “but we can improve employee health.”

At Air Products and Chemicals Inc. in Trexlertown, wellness has been a part of the company from the beginning, said Mariann Cameron, a registered nurse and coordinator of the company's Global Health and Wellness program. She oversees an extensive operation by helping employees to become healthier, reducing medical costs and doing it on a global basis.

In addition to her own ideas, Cameron uses the “2010/2011 Taking Charge of Our Health Wellness Program” created by Alere. The program not only provides educational information, but also answers to medical questions and health coaching via a telephone call.

The program is multifaceted and covers everything from a personal wellness assessment to online seminars, healthy living tips, and a tobacco cessation program. Employee participation is 100 percent to some degree, because  employees are required to watch the global web casts on various health issues, Cameron said.

“Health on a global basis is similar to the United states,” Cameron said. “We’ve spread our poor health practices globally. We’re all experiencing the same health issues.”

The program at Air Products encourages further participation through wellness credits. According to a company brochure, employees who earn at least 20 wellness credits of the 60 available by July 31 can receive up to $250 off their medical plan employee contributions for the 2012 calendar year. If an employee is not on the company medical plan, then he or she can receive $125.

Points can be earned through various health challenges such as the Healthy Heart Challenge, which gives employees five wellness credits if completed successfully. In order to get the credits, employees have to accumulate at least 35 points from February 1 to 28. They earn one point per day for 15 minutes of moderate physical activity, one point for eating one cup of fruits or vegetables or two cups of raw leafy vegetables, and five points for checking their blood pressure, the brochure stated.

“We are seeing people shifting from high risk groups to medium risk groups, and those in medium risk to low risk,” Cameron said.

The median age of Air Products office employees is 42.5 years, though the median age increases to 50 for its truck drivers, Cameron said.

“There’s this really neat ground swell in employee engagement in the program,” Cameron said.

Groups of employees have also sponsored and promoted health seminars at Air Products. The program by Alere encourages employees to become wellness champions where they promote health programs and participation among their co-workers.

 “If you’re going to do programs like these, they have to be fun and competitive,” Cameron said. “Most of us eat two or three meals (at work). If you can make those good choices, then it will make a difference. If you can do small things, they add up to larger things”

A drop of one body mass index point can save $200 in the terms of medical claims costs, she said. When a smoker quits smoking, there can be a savings of $4,000 annually.

In addition to having a higher median age, truck drivers present particular challenges to the health care initiative due to the nature of driving a truck. These employees don’t have as much opportunity to get physical exercise.    Coupled with fast food choices on the road, the result is a rise in cholesterol, blood pressure, and diabetes in truck drivers, she said. To help them combat health issues, Cameron created some competitions just for them. Their career is fairly sedentary, so getting exercise and proper nutrition can be a bit of a challenge.

Cameron designed a month-long competition called “Going Bananas” last May. Cameron asked management at the 18 truck terminals to make fruit readily available for the drivers. The drivers were asked to keep track of how much fruit they ate per day. The goal was to get the truck drivers to eat fruit instead of vending machine snacks. The winning terminal received a fruit basket prize, of course, she said.

“My boys love to compete,” Cameron said.

Cameron also developed a walking program called “Sneakin’ in the Steps.” During the four-week competition, she challenged the truck drivers to walk 10,000 steps per day. She told them to take a trip to “Men’s Macys,” Cameron’s pet name for Home Depot, and walk the perimeter of the store. One trip around is 2,000 steps, she said, and Cameron has tested it out.

Air Products also has a 1.7 mile walking track winding around the office complex. The path was designed to navigate employees through cross walks safely away from trucking, while providing an opportunity to get out of the office, Cameron said.