When It Comes to Employee Health, Which Comes First, the Chicken or the Egg?

By Dan Tillotson, CEO, The Prevention Plan

As health care expenditures continue to skyrocket, (premiums have more than doubled in the last decade with no relief in sight) the debate continues about whether employers should focus their wellness efforts on the chicken or the egg.

The chicken, in this case, is the estimated 10-20 percent of the workforce that either has, or is at high-risk for developing a chronic condition - diabetes, heart disease, COPD, obesity, depression and back pain are a few of the most costly.

It is widely acknowledged that this population will account for 75-80 percent of an employer’s health care costs including medical care, pharmacy costs, and the biggest component - lost productivity.  Conventional wisdom says you should focus your efforts where the biggest cost drivers exist.  In this case, if you can help this group better manage their condition, you may be able to slow the progression of disease and reduce its destructive and disabling impact on the employees’ health and productivity, especially in the short-term.

The downside of this approach as a stand-alone strategy is that these costly conditions are continually hatching among the workforce as they age, so employers never get ahead of the disease curve to create sustainable cost savings over the long-term.

The egg, on the other hand, represents the vast majority of the workforce who are seemingly healthy. These individuals are at low to moderate risk for disease and generally account for a small portion of the organization's health care costs.

In a recent interview with the Wellness Council of America, Dr. Dee Edington, Director of the Health Management Research Center and professor of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan surmised that employers need to keep 70-85 percent of their eggs in the low-risk basket.**  According to Dr. Edington, "…We don’t need more doctors, more nurses, more hospitals—we need fundamental change. And part of that is focusing on keeping the low-risk at low-risk."

By including a long-term prevention and wellness strategy, employers can help to keep their eggs in the low-risk basket, before costly, in most cases preventable, health issues arise.

Historically, employers faced with this chicken versus egg dilemma have had few options because there weren’t any programs in the marketplace that effectively addressed the entire health continuum of the workforce…until now.

The Prevention Plan from U.S. Preventive Medicine, Inc., is the only comprehensive health management program that encompasses primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. From keeping the low-risk population at low risk (primary prevention), to preventive screenings and early disease detection (secondary prevention), to intensive one-on-one advocacy and coaching for those with chronic conditions to move them back down the continuum to moderate, or even low risk, (tertiary) The Prevention Plan offers a complete suite of solutions for employers.

The plan includes a variety of built-in incentives and challenges to engage members and reward their efforts. In addition, a unique Prevention Score, allows employers to customize rewards and tie employee incentives to measurable results, including health and participation metrics, while preserving the employees’ privacy.

And, since The Prevention Plan allows employers to pay only for those employees who enroll, (most plans require a per employee per month fee) the onus is on The Prevention Plan, not the HR department, to maximize participation.  As a result participating employers are enjoying employee engagement of 50 to 90 percent compared to average enrollment in most wellness programs of around 10 to 15 percent.

Call today to learn more about The Prevention Plan at 866-713-3415 or take a test drive at www.ThePreventionPlan.com.

** The Magic Numbers…Establishing Targets for Health Assessment Participation And the Percent of Employees at Low-Risk; www.wellcoa.org