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Business leaders often cite that employees are their most valuable asset, yet often do not have a well-conceived plan to maximize the performance of these human assets. On October 14th, with the help of Toyota Motor Manufacturing and Toyota Motor Sales, St. Elizabeth Medical Center presented a unique program entitled: "Sustaining a Competitive Advantage Through an Active Health Investment Strategy". Dr. David Hunnicutt, President of Wellness Council of America, and Bill Herman, Vice President of Human Resources, Highsmith, Inc., Ft. Atkinson, Wisconsin shared several key points with local business leaders as to why a strategic health investment plan is essential to a company's performance and bottom-line productivity. Here are Dr. Hunnicutt's comments from that meeting:

KEY POINT # 1: Employers are footing a lion's share of health care costs. These costs are skyrocketing, and, if left unchecked, they will drastically impact the bottom line.

The United States currently spends more per person on healthcare than any other nation. In fiscal year 2001, the United States spent $1.4 trillion; $3.8 billion per day is spent on healthcare. If these dollars were laid end-to-end, the distance would be enough to circle the earth nearly 15 times. And these expenditures are expected to continue to rise, topping $2.6 trillion in 2010. How will we foot this bill? As Bill Kizer, Chairman of Central States Indemnity, says, "For small business owners, who often measure profits in the thousands of dollars, the net effect of healthy employees could mean the difference between profit and loss."

KEY POINT #2: There are four health care cost containment paths an employer can choose: do nothing, cut benefits, pass costs on to employees, and zero in on the drivers. The path your company chooses today can and will determine your company's future success.

A path many employers have been taking is to do nothing, wait and see. "This is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic," Hunnicutt says. A second path is to cut benefits. While this will certainly lower your healthcare costs, 60% of employees rank health insurance as the #1 benefit they look for from an employer. The question is, do you want an employee, or the employee? You can't afford to lose your employees over health benefits. A third path is to pass on rising healthcare costs to employees. This option "makes great sense," says Hunnicutt. Employee out-of-pocket costs have not risen as employers' have. These days, employees have grown to view health care as a right, rather than a benefit. This is evident in the staggering number of non-essential emergency room visits each year. If a co-pay were instituted with your healthcare plan, emergency room visits for simple ear infections and superficial skin wounds would presumably decrease measurably. If you combine passing on these costs with a good communication plan (i.e. tell employees why they must pay more out-of-pocket expenses), employees may better understand and accept higher costs. A fourth path is for an employer to get a handle on what factors are driving health care costs. Examine medical claims and health insurance data, and see which portions are modifiable.

KEY POINT #3 Employee lifestyle health choices can account for 25-50% of health care costs. A well-designed wellness program can reduce health care costs and improve health.

One in five employees surveyed by Oxford Health Plans in April of 2002 reported being in excellent health. Yet, those same individuals tended to be at least 25 pounds overweight (55%), smoke (31%), never exercise (36%), and drink three or more glasses of alcohol (21%) and four or more cups of tea or coffee (29%) per day. Obesity now rivals smoking as an American epidemic, contributing to such chronic diseases as type II diabetes, heart disease, stroke, colon cancer, breast cancer, and knee and hip pain. Chronic conditions affected 125 million Americans in 2000, and accounted for $510 billion in medical costs.

A moderately successful wellness program can reduce these costs by 30-50%. Lifestyle risk factors and chronic disease can be modified--and their costs contained--with a well-designed health promotions program. Simply throwing money cannot solve these problems. A wellness program must capture senior level support; be data driven, tied to business-based goals; and include a change in corporate culture to support a healthier lifestyle, such as offering fruit and fruit juices at meetings instead of doughnuts and coffee, and encouraging exercise and wellness. Employees can be required to take a health-risk appraisal in order to participate in company health benefits, and their good health linked to benefits. Monongalia Health System, Inc. of Morgantown, WV has done just that, and, while most companies and organizations have experienced 12-13% increases in healthcare costs, Monongalia has held their costs steady for the past two years.

Offering incentives greatly increases participation. Providence Everett Medical Center's 10-year-old wellness program boasts a 65% participation rate, and averages a $3.50 return on each dollar invested by increasing incentives for each year of success. Quaker Oats estimates savings of $2 million per year in health expenses with its Live Well Be Well program, which includes health risk assessment, screening, and intervention programs. At Chevron Texaco, fitness center participants had 71% lower inpatient and 26% lower drug expenditures than non-participants

Mark Riedinger says, "A carefully designed and instituted wellness program can positively affect your bottom line! Contact St. Elizabeth Business Health Center or your healthcare provider for suggestions to improve your company's health and well being."

Dr. David Hunnicutt is President of the Wellness Councils of America, a not-for-profit health promotion organization, whose mission is to protect and enhance the health and well being of the nation's workforce. Dr. Hunnicutt can be reached by phone (402) 827-3590, or the e-mail wellworkplace@welcoa.org. For more information: www.welcoa.org.
Mark Riedinger is Vice President of St. Elizabeth Business Health Services, a not for profit organization, whose mission is to work in partnership with employers and their employees to control health and workers compensation costs and improve the health, morale and
productivity of employees. Mark Riedinger can be reached at 859-344-2320 or email at mrieding@stelizabeth.com.