Ten Steps Toward Strategic Health Promotion Programs

The Wellness Program management world is evolving rapidly. Each month, there are new research findings that support the premise that Wellness Programs and disease management (DM) have a long-term impact on healthcare costs.

Many large organizations that began Wellness Programs three to five years ago are showing savings in health, disability, and employees compensation costs. Small to mid-size organizations are watching all this and wondering where to begin with wellness.

Getting senior management support and budget approval is among the challenges at the beginning of a Health Promotion Program. This is the case because Health Promotion Programs may be expensive, averaging $150-300 per worker each year in large organizations.

Most of the savings aren’t realized for a number of years. This long-term investing is hard for corporations on the move.

The key to success for Health Promotion Programs is to take a strategic approach. Here are ten steps to consider when starting a Health Promotion Program.

1. Begin with upper-level management. Without upper-level management support, a wellness strategy can fall flat. Begin with the health of your executive team and discover your wellness champions at the top of the business.

2. Analyze the problem. Look at your healthcare claims and analyze the trends. Which conditions are driving your medical, disability, and workers’ compensation claims and which are modifiable? What’s worked and what has not therefore far? What’s the long-term impact of doing nothing?

3. Hold an initial wellness meeting. Invite your key stakeholders both inside and outside the company. Ask your broker to facilitate the meeting and invite key health providers including health, disability, Worker Assistance Program (EAP), fitness, and occupational nursing.

Review claims and utilization data and identify key areas of concern. Look at current offerings and see how they are able to be tailored to the needs of the population.

4. Consider both healthy and unhealthy workers. Since 85 percent of claims are usually attributed to 15 percent of claimants, it is essential to reach those with the most expensive conditions while also reaching individuals  who are at risk for developing preventable illnesses in the future.

Voluntary wellness programs such as lunchtime wellness workshops miss many of the people  who need them most. Consider wellness programs that are population-wide or target intact workgroups. Wellness incentives help but do not motivate everyone.

5. Make sure to set short-term objectives for the wellness programs. Make sure to set some realistic short-term objectives based on your key areas of concern. Are there any plan design changes that could have an immediate impact on spending? Are there some programmatic actions that could have immediate results?

6. Find out what workers are thinking. Hold some focus groups to determine where individuals  are with wellness. What’s working? What isn’t? Exactly how much interest do individuals  have in the Wellness Programs? What obstacles and barriers are workers experiencing when they try to change behavior?

7. Be certain you’ve a high-impact Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Your first wellness dollars ought to go into upgrading your Employee Assistance Program (EAP). A highly utilized Employee Assistance Program (EAP) can provide a foundation for all of your future wellness activities.

A good Staff Member Assistance Program (EAP) is a trusted link to the hearts and minds of staff members.  At no additional cost, the Staff Member Assistance Program (EAP) can provide needed follow-up coaching and personal attention for staff members who are working on modifiable health behaviors or involved in disease management (DM) programs.

Nutritionists, fitness, pregnancy, and stress management experts are all part of a high-value Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

8. Be certain to set three to five year objectives for healthcare savings and measure them. Get help from your broker and insurance carrier help you on long-term objectives for your health, disability, and staff compensation plans.

Establish program metrics that’ll help you to measure ROI. Go beyond participation rates, completion rates and program satisfaction. Measure changes in readiness, changes in behavior, and changes in risk factors. Establish rigorous methods to measure health care savings over the long term.

9. Be sure to set objectives for organizational health. Consider the more intangible benefits of a health promotion program and quantify them whenever possible. Include employee turnover rates, cost of new hires, employee morale, benefit satisfaction data, and employer of choice issues in setting objectives. Establish ways to measure success in these areas.

10. Add specifics to your short and long-term plan. Include a program strategy, a communication strategy, and an incentive strategy that will fit with your corporate culture. Focus on integration of related components along a health continuum with communications that are focused, simple, and human.

Establish a budget that includes key components such as consumer education, wellness, health risk assessments, and regular biometric screens.