Wellness Programs : Are Wellness Programs Cost-Effective?
Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that comprehensive health promotion programs, or Wellness Programs, can lower health care and insurance costs, lower rates of absenteeism, and improve performance and productivity.
Other benefits demonstrated in studies include improved ability to attract and retain key personnel, greater worker allegiance, and improved public image of the company.
Health Care and Insurance Costs
A number of studies provide evidence of lower medical and insurance costs for participants in health promotion programs, namely health promotion programs involving exercise.
For $30 per individuals, the Bank of America conducted a health promotion program for retirees using a risk assessment questionnaire, self-care books and other mailed materials. Insurance claims were reduced an typical of $164 annually in this group while they increased $15 for the control group.
Since they were able to document meaningful changes in risk behavior, they anticipate greater savings in future years.
Pacific Bell’s FitWorks participants claim $300 less per case for a one-year savings of $700,000. Savings for conditions related to a sedentary lifestyle are $722 per case.
Coca Cola reported a reduction in health care claims with an exercise plan alone, saving $500 per worker a year for the staff members (60%) who joined their HealthWorks fitness program.
Prudential Insurance Business reports that the corporation’s major healthcare costs dropped from $574 to $312 for each participant in its health promotion program.
Lowered Absenteeism
Absenteeism has been shown to be impacted by company health promotion and health promotion programs. The evidence indicates a significant reduction in absenteeism and resultant dollars saved then of staff member exercise plans.
Pacific Bell’s FitWorks wellness program decreased absent days .8 percent to save $2 million in one year. FitWorks members also spent 3.3 days less on short-term disability for an additional savings of $4.7 million.
Focusing wellness efforts on high-risk employees can lead to better results. A national manufacturing organization reports a decrease of 12.2 percent in disease days for these employees.
A two-year study by the DuPont Corporation of the effect of its comprehensive health promotion program on absences among employees reports that blue-collar employees at intervention sites had a 14% decline in disability days vs. 5.8% decline for controls. There were a sum of 11,726 fewer net disability days.
Increased Performance, Productivity and Morale
A number of companys with wellness programs report documented improvement in job attitude, work performance, energy level, and/or overall morale among wellness program participants–all crucial factors in enhancing productivity.
A Johnson and Johnson study found that worker attitude changes were greater at wellness intervention sites with significant positive attitude changes noted in the categories of organizational commitment, supervision, working conditions, job competence/security, and pay/benefits.
In a Canadian government study, the Canada Life Assurance Corporation experimental group realized a 4 percent increase in productivity after starting an worker fitness program, compared to the control group.
Moreover, 47 percent of health promotion program participants reported that they felt more alert, had better rapport with their coworkers, and usually enjoyed their work more.
Swedish investigators found that mental performance was significantly better in physically fit personnel than in non-fit staff members. Fit personnel committed 27% fewer errors on tasks involving concentration and short-term memory, as compared with the performance of non-fit staff members.
The Bottom Line
The following sample of company health promotion health promotion program results have been reported by individual companys –
Company – Dollars Saved/Dollars Spent
• Bank of America (Fries) – $5.96/$1
• PacBell – $3.10/$1
• Wisconsin School District Insurance Group – $4.47/$1
• Prudential Insurance – $2.90/$1
• Bank of America (Leigh) – $4.73/$1
• General Mills – $3.50/$1
Summary
There is compelling evidence that a sizable portion of the billions of dollars currently spent by businesss on health-related costs is preventable by means of wellness programming.
Well-planned, extensive health promotion programs (health promotion programs and worker health promotion programs) have been shown to be cost-effective, specifically when the health promotion programming is matched to the health problems of the specific worker
