Healthy Lifestyle…Less Money

Posted by David Edman in Blog, Corporate Wellness, March 2010 on March 5th, 2010 | No Comments »

Your choices about lifestyle are a matter of life, death, and health.  The evidence shows that lifestyle decisions are a more important determinant of your health than which doctors and hospitals you visit and the services they provide to you.  Do you:

• Smoke
• Manage your weight
• Exercise
• Get the right amount of sleep
• Minimize stress
• Live happily

When you make good lifestyle decisions, you are healthier.  That translates into less use of the healthcare system and lower costs, both for you and whoever may be paying for healthcare on your behalf (e.g., employer, union, government).

Tying Financial Incentives To Lifestyle Decisions

Your level of health, and the cost of your healthcare, can be impacted both by good decision-making and by good luck.  Though we cannot do much to impact our luck, we have control over our personal decision-making and lifestyle.  Therefore, we would argue that people who make good personal decisions about their health should also derive certain financial benefits.

How do we do this?  By giving people ‘skin in the game’.  By emphasizing the importance of personal responsibility.  And by rewarding success for living a healthy lifestyle.  These are the essential elements of the Consumer Driven Health Care movement.  It’s worth learning more about this concept because I believe it is the key to maintaining a private health care system in the United States (and preserving the delivery of the best healthcare services in the world).

How One Large Corporate (Safeway) Does It

Supermarket chain Safeway is held up by President Obama and others as a model for controlling healthcare costs through prevention and wellness.  Safeway uses a consumer driven model of health insurance for their employees, in this case a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA).  A major contributor to their success in controlling healthcare costs has been a system of financial rewards for employees who make good lifestyle decisions.

Safeway’s approach is to establish premium differentials for employees based on certain healthy lifestyle measures, including tobacco usage, healthy weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels.  The results of these tests are used to establish premium “rewards.”   Safeway employees who pass all four tests have their annual premiums reduced by $780 ($1,560 for families).  Since the idea is to help employees succeed and save money, individuals who fail one or more tests can be tested again in 12 months.  The program has been a ‘win-win’ for Safeway and its employees.

What Can Your Company Do?

Much depends on your company’s size and resources, but it all starts with a commitment to prevention and wellness.  Engage a Wellness Coach to develop a plan for your company.  You can start with educational seminars and a newsletter, health fairs, discounts for the gym memberships, testing of body fat and cholesterol levels, and so forth.

Once you’ve establish the basic programming, we can begin to think about tying financial incentives to employee decision-making and behavior.  Contact us.  Our Wellness Coach can visit with you and make recommendations.  It works and it saves money.