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Wellness programs boost employee, corporate health: WorldatWork speakers

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Wellness programs boost employee, corporate health: WorldatWork speakers

DALLAS – Wellness programs can reduce insurance premiums, improve worker productivity and reduce employee absences due to sickness or disability, Sherri Bockhorst, national practice leader of health exchange solutions at Buck Consultants L.L.C., said Tuesday.

More companies offer wellness programs in North America than any other continent, according to the consulting firm's most recent survey on the subject. However, positive changes don't happen overnight, St. Louis-based Ms. Bockhorst said during a session about leveraging health insurance exchanges for varying populations during WorldatWork's 2014 Total Rewards Conference in Dallas.

“One of the things that's so frustrating to me as a consultant is when you have a client who spends a lot of time and energy starting … a wellness program, and then two years in — or even worse, 12 months in — they say, 'Oh, we haven't gotten the results we wanted to. We're going to pull it out,” Ms. Bockhorst said. “It takes a long time to build attraction for your wellness programs. So that's why, exchange or no exchange, if you are of the belief that health and productivity are tied together, and you already (started) to build that awareness of your population to help drive the 70% of claims that are driven by lifestyle conditions … if you've already invested time in that, don't give that up.”

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It could take two to five years to see significant improvements, the survey found. After five years, health care and insurance premium costs can be reduced 79%, worker productivity improved 63% and employee absences due to sickness or disability reduced 65%, according to the survey.

It's still important to pay attention to data in a post-exchange environment, Ms. Bockhorst said. Even employers that use private health insurance exchanges have access to information that can help them personalize messaging for workers.

For example, she said, employers should not send a smoking-cessation message to a nonsmoker because they'll throw it out and ignore future messages that do apply to them.

Peter Dowd, Rochester, New York-based vice president of compensation and benefits at Xerox Corp., said the health of an organization depends on the health of its employees. That is why Xerox promotes a “culture of shared accountability” through wellness screenings, health care education and trusted health advisers, he said during the session.

“We want to make sure we're providing benefits that cover (employees') needs, but we're also looking at ways in which we can drive prevention and ensure that people are aware of, and engaged in, their health and wellness,” Mr. Dowd said.