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As President Obama and Congress gear up for a historic debate over health care reform, there is surging interest in prevention and worksite wellness programs as evidence-based tools to contain health care costs. According to consultant surveys, approximately 80 percent of employers already use some combination of health management tools and approaches to manage the aggregate cost and productivity of their workforce. Yet only 17 percent provide a comprehensive employee health management approach, with programs designed to address the entire illness-to-wellness continuum. Why does this matter? For an employee health management program to be effective with containing costs, studies show it must address total population health—and provide support to every employee to manage their health. Research examining health management program success consistently found the following critical components:
In fact, a 2008 study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine reported that health risk assessment participation was, on average, 20 percent higher in “best practice” programs that employed these quality components. What’s more, risk reduction was 2.35 times higher than in non-best-practice programs. By incorporating these recommended strategies, organizations can positively affect human capital management and maximize their human capital investment. Plus, they can measurably contain operating costs. A study published in Club Business International found that employers who offered comprehensive wellness programs realized a 25 to 30 percent reduction in medical and absenteeism costs over 3.6 years, and earned a ROI of $3.14 for every dollar spent on employee wellness. The evidence is clear; it makes financial sense to offer health improvement programs at the worksite. However, studies show not just any type of worksite wellness program will do. In today’s challenging economy, a comprehensive employee health management approach is one of the most effective ways for a company to improve its net bottom line. But to achieve maximum impact and ROI, employers must be willing to put in place an organization-wide culture of health, created with the building blocks of best practice employee health management. Yours in good health,
Inside HealthFitness To identify health risks—and the programs needed to address them—to keep employees healthy, multinational employers can use aggregate data collected with HealthFitness' INSIGHT® International Health Risk Assessment (HRA). HealthFitness’ INSIGHT International HRA provides multinational companies with critical data to tailor benefits and health improvement programs to specific populations, and reduce health care costs and absenteeism among their entire employee population. And soon, a new version of the HRA will allow multinational employers to tailor outreach to individual employees based on their HRA results. HealthFitness first launched INSIGHT International in 2008, and will introduce a 2.0 version in January 2010 that will offer more branching logic to gather additional details about specific health risks. The new version will also provide employers with the ability to capture personal data. “We are currently applying for Safe Harbor, which is the EU standard for data privacy. This will allow us to use individual data to identify people who are at risk and create individual outreach,” HealthFitness’ Chief Medical Officer Jim Reynolds said. “For employers who are interested in providing this outreach to their employees, we will work with in-country partners to deliver those services.” INSIGHT International is a brief, easy-to-complete HRA that is translated and culturally validated by in-country translators. For employees, the HRA raises awareness about health risks and gives personalized feedback about lifestyle changes to improve their health. Data collected from the HRA provides employers with identification of the top six chronic conditions and health risks among employees at domestic and international locations. INSIGHT International is currently available in 15 languages, including Mandarin Chinese, Canadian French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. By the end of 2010, HealthFitness expects to have the HRA available in 33 to 35 languages, including several from Asia and the Pacific Rim. For additional information on the INSIGHT International HRA, click here or talk with your program manager.
Best-in-class Practices and Awards At industry conferences and on Capitol Hill, “medical home” is a hot topic in discussions about health care reform, as President Obama’s administration focuses on wellness and prevention to contain skyrocketing health costs. Unfamiliar with the term? Here is what you should know: This new health care delivery model is designed to help you pay less for health care by creating healthier people through improved communication and quality innovations. Medical home is based on the idea that stronger relationships between patients and their primary care doctors will lead not only to improved care but also to long-term savings. These savings will be achieved largely by reducing the number of avoidable emergency room visits and hospitalizations for patients with serious chronic illness. Plus, the model provides a framework for physicians to keep better track of patient records, preventing duplicate lab tests and other unnecessary expenses. A medical home pays physicians to collaboratively provide all of a patient's needs, from arranging care with specialists and delivering preventive services to helping control chronic conditions. Doctors often receive bonuses for meeting quality standards and often share in savings from fewer and shorter hospital stays. Several medical home pilot projects are already underway to determine best practices with this model, including one with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS’ three-year medical home demonstration project, set to begin in 2010, will be conducted in up to eight states, involve about 400 medical practices, 2,000 physicians and 400,000 Medicare beneficiaries. For patients and employers, the medical home model is intended to promote health, wellness and prevention, while streamlining coordination of care through multiple channels. And this is where HealthFitness comes in. Through your partnership with us, you are already making strides to reduce employee health risks and health care costs. The solutions we provide are in sync with a focus on wellness and prevention, and are designed to support primary care physicians with information (health risk assessments and screenings, for example) and tools (such as health coaching) to deliver high quality care and improved health.
As the medical home model gains steam, we look forward to our continued partnership with you to positively affect the health of your employees—and to contain your health care costs.
Connecting Employees with Health—This Tool Makes It Easy
To provide client employees with valuable tools to manage their health, HealthFitness offers an eHealth platform with information that is URAC-accredited and written and reviewed by qualified medical experts.
This year to date, more than 178,000 participants have logged in to eHealth for a total of 1.8 million visits. Popular features include the health risk, fitness, nutrition and heart assessments, and the “cool tools,” which offer interactive calculators to measure current health and fitness status.
To drive employees to use eHealth as their go-to resource for timely, credible health information, HealthFitness associates use a variety of creative tactics.
At the Dow Jones Health Club, for example, HealthFitness Program Manager Lisa Tatulli promotes the use of eHealth during incentive programs, requiring members to enter their workouts online to receive points for the activities they complete. Those who acquire the most points during these promotions receive incentives such as gas cards, one-year free memberships or free personal training sessions.
“eHealth is a one-stop place for members to track their health goals and a great tool to stay connected with our members by providing up-to-date information about what’s going on at their health club,” Tatulli said.
HealthFitness has managed the Dow Jones Health Club since 1999. Amenities available at the 8,000-square-foot facility include group exercise classes, a kids’ fitness program and summer camp and recreational programming.
For another client, a pharmaceutical company where HealthFitness manages a 10,000-square-foot fitness center for about 2,000 eligible employees, associates drive employees to eHealth by making it the key avenue to gain information about the club. All enrollment forms for the center, group exercise schedules and class registrations for the site’s popular cycling class are only available on eHealth. Employees must enroll in eHealth to gain access.
HealthFitness’ eHealth content is available in both English and Spanish. For more information about the features of eHealth,
click here, or talk with your program manager.
University of Louisville Realizes Nearly 3:1 ROI with Health Management
The university launched its program, Get Healthy Now, in 2005 as a strategy to contain rising health care costs for its more than 4,500 employees. Two years later, HealthFitness began partnering with the university to manage the program, which today includes health risk assessments, dedicated health coaches, an eHealth platform, health advising, an on-site fitness facility, and incentives.
“Demonstrating ROI is of the upmost importance with our health management program,” said Patricia Benson, director of
Get Healthy Now, University of Louisville. “Through the ROI analysis, we are able to show senior executives that the program has helped the university save millions of dollars in health care spending.”
A recent ROI study conducted by HealthFitness demonstrated the program’s success as a cost-containment measure. HealthFitness measured the university’s ROI using medical claims data from July 2006–October 2008 and a proprietary methodology based on DMAA standards.
“The University of Louisville has set a solid foundation for improving employee health—and demonstrating the financial impact of its program,” said Jim Reynolds, M.D., chief medical officer, HealthFitness. “The positive ROI achieved with its health management program will help provide critical traction as we look to identify ways that further engage the university population in healthy behaviors and reduce health risks among their employees.”
The issue brief, “University of Louisville: Delivering Positive ROI Through Health Management,” provides additional detail about the university’s program and ROI measurements. To download this free issue brief, visit
www.hfit.com/briefs.cfm.
New Innovative Programming Drives Results for 3M
As part of the company’s Healthy Living Resources initiative, 3M has consolidated many programs offered to employees surrounding health and wellness. Programs vary from those offered at the company’s three fitness centers, to resources for employees’ work, personal life and convenience. And many of 3M’s programs are seeing success.
One of these successful programs is offered through two of the company’s HealthFitness-managed fitness centers located on 3M’s Maplewood, Minn. corporate campus. “21 Days: A Mind/Body Bootcamp” integrates custom workouts with cardio, strength, balance, flexibility, nutrition and active relaxation/meditation in a five-day-a-week morning routine.
Created by HealthFitness staff, “21 Days” provides participants with one-hour classes that include pre- and post-meditation sessions, seminars on nutrition and weight management, plus interaction with an individual coach.
To date, the 21-day program has been offered five times and received high satisfaction from participants. “We wanted to take a more holistic approach to the participants’ perception of their own well-being,” HealthFitness Contract Manager Naomi Pelley said. “The results have been exciting!”
One participant, Joanna Barton, a senior quality engineer for 3M, for example, said: “I’ve pushed my body to the limits so often in this class, and today I’m finally feeling the rewards. I’ve got a little extra spring in my step and such a fresh outlook on life.” This participant lost about four pounds during the program, but more importantly, “I’ve gained an exercise habit! The program motivated me and made me realize how simple it was to incorporate an exercise regime in the morning before work.”
HealthFitness has been a health and fitness partner of 3M since 2002. 3M’s HealthFitness-managed fitness centers in Minnesota are regularly utilized by 60 percent of the site’s total membership of approximately 2,400. The third 3M fitness center is located at the company’s Austin, Texas, facility. It has 330 members and is utilized by 41 percent of eligible employees.
HealthFitness Programs Affect Weight, Physical Activity at Texas Instruments
Without intervention, by 2023 the projected rise in cases of cancers is expected to grow by 62 percent, diabetes, 53 percent; heart disease, 41 percent; and hypertension, 39 percent, according to a Milken Institute study.
To counteract the rise of these chronic diseases and the heavy burden associated with these conditions, companies such as Texas Instruments are using HealthFitness programs
Your Weigh…Together and Walk This Way® to help employees manage their weight and get physically active.
Between 2005 and 2008, 403 Texas Instruments employees completed Your Weigh…Together, a group weight management program, and collectively lost nearly 3,800 pounds or an average of about 10 pounds each. Also during that same time period, 1,133 employees participated in Walk This Way and logged nearly 6 million steps or approximately 300,000 miles.
“We’re proud of our numbers and our success,” said Blair Archer, wellness coordinator for the company’s three fitness centers. “If you look at chronic diseases such as hypertension and obesity, they can be positively impacted by physical activity. In addition, 10 to 15 percent weight loss can produce extreme health benefits. So the success of these programs has made a major impact on our participants’ health.”
Texas Instruments, a Dallas-based developer of analog embedded processing and wireless technologies, has partnered with HealthFitness to manage its three Texins Activity Centers, located in Dallas, Plano and Sherman, Texas, since 1999.
Membership in the three Texas-based fitness centers is more than 12,000, or 51 percent of the eligible company’s population, which includes employees, contractors, alumni and retirees. Of those members, 46 percent participate at an average rate of seven times per month in programming.
Successful Strategies for Employee Engagement with On-Site Fitness
With assistance from HealthFitness, companies are overcoming this obstacle by focusing on customer service, programming and member and staff interaction.
Below are a couple best practice examples of how HealthFitness associates are successfully engaging employees at our clients’ on-site fitness centers: Cox Ohio Publishing, a Dayton, Ohio-based Cox Media Group Company, partnered with HealthFitness in
2007 to manage its health and fitness center. Under HealthFitness’ guidance, the 10,000-square-foot fitness center underwent an extensive renovation and then was reopened in April 2007. The center is available to Cox’s nearly 1,000 employees. Within one year, utilization of the fitness center increased by 12 percent from 21,308 visits to 23,932 in 2008. Plus the fitness center had an 84 percent increase in active membership and a 74 percent increase in group fitness participation in 2008 compared to 2007. At a multi-tenant facility located in a highly competitive real estate market in Schaumburg, Ill., a significant renovation of the fitness center in 2007, combined with strong member and staff interaction, drove renewed interest in the site. Within one year of full operation at the newly renovated fitness center, HealthFitness’ Program Manager Suzanne Jacobs and her staff increased membership rates, membership utilization and active members by 66.6 percent, 29.3 percent and 31 percent, respectively.
Gain Recognition for Effective Programming at Your Fitness Center
Club Industry’s Fitness Business Pro magazine is seeking submissions for its seventh annual “Best of the Best” award program. Award categories include best new member integration program, best children’s program, best
behavior modification program and best group training program.
HealthFitness is happy to partner with you to create the submission for this award program. It will cost you nothing to apply!
Winners will be honored at the Club Industry show in Chicago on Oct. 16, 2009, and featured in the magazine and on the Website.
Visit
http://fitnessbusinesspro.com/awardsrankings/ for additional information or talk with your program manager. The deadline for applications is July 7. Industry Insights To study the effect of chocolate milk on endurance performance, researchers compared the effects of three beverages in a cycling endurance test. Nine trained male cyclists performed the following three trials: completed a glycogen depletion workout, drank one of the three test beverages during a four-hour recovery period and then cycled to exhaustion in an endurance capacity trial. The three test beverages were chocolate milk, a commercially available carbohydrate-replacement sports drink and a commercially available fluid-replacement drink. All three beverages had generally the same number of calories. The participants cycled 51 percent and 43 percent longer after drinking chocolate milk than after drinking the carbohydrate-replacement sports drink or fluid-replacement sports drink respectively. These latest results support a growing body of research into the potential benefits of chocolate milk in post-exercise hydration and recovery, compared to other sports nutrition products. Researchers believe the results could be due to differences in carbohydrate type and/or fat content between the beverages. Registered dietitians often recommend low-fat chocolate milk as an excellent and practical post-exercise recovery beverage. Chocolate milk is 90 percent water, so it’s ideal for rehydration. It’s also a great tasting whole food with a naturally great combination of carbohydrates and protein needed to refuel a tired athlete’s body. Plus, it’s packed with many other nutrients including calcium and vitamins A and D. Source: Thomas K, et al. (2009) Improved endurance capacity following chocolate milk consumption compared with 2 commercially available sport drinks
Appl Physiol Nutr Metab;34:78-82. Accessed on 5-18-09 at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez |
