Ten Steps Toward Strategic Health Promotion Programs
The Health Promotion Program management world is evolving rapidly. Each month, there are new research findings that support the premise that Health Promotion Programs and disease management (DM) have a long-term impact on healthcare costs.
A lot of big businesses that began Wellness Programs three to five years ago are showing savings in health, disability, and employees compensation costs. Small to mid-size businesses are watching all this and wondering where to start with wellness.
Getting senior management support and budget approval is among the challenges at the beginning of a Wellness Program. This is the case because Wellness Programs can be expensive, averaging $150-300 per staff member a year in large organizations.
Most of the savings aren’t realized for a number of years. This long-term investing is hard for companies 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. Start with upper management. Without upper management support, a wellness strategy can fall flat. Start with the health of your executive team and discover your wellness champions at the top of the corporation.
2. Analyze the problem. Look at your health care 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 accordingly 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 business. Ask your broker to facilitate the meeting and invite key health vendors 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 healthful and unhealthful personnel. Since 85% of claims are typically attributed to 15% of claimants, it’s essential to reach those with the most costly conditions while also reaching people who are at risk for developing preventable diseases in the future.
Voluntary health promotion programs such as lunchtime wellness seminars miss many of the individuals who need them most. Consider health promotion programs that are population-wide or target intact workgroups. Wellness incentives help but don’t motivate everyone.
5. Be sure to set short-term objectives for the health promotion programs. Be sure to set some realistic short-term objectives based on your key areas of concern. Are there any plan design changes that could’ve an immediate impact on spending? Are there some programmatic actions that could’ve immediate results?
6. Find out what personnel are thinking. Hold some focus groups to determine where people are with wellness. What’s working? What isn’t? How much interest do people have in the Health Promotion Programs? What obstacles and barriers are personnel experiencing when they attempt to change behavior?
7. Make sure you have a high-impact Staff Member Assistance Program (EAP). Your first wellness dollars ought to go into upgrading your Staff Member Assistance Program (EAP). A highly utilized Staff Member Assistance Program (EAP) can provide a foundation for all of your future wellness activities.
A good Worker Assistance Program (EAP) is a trusted link to the hearts and minds of staff. At no additional cost, the Worker Assistance Program (EAP) can provide needed follow-up coaching and personal attention for staff who are working on modifiable health behaviors or involved in disease management programs.
Nutritionists, fitness, pregnancy, and stress management experts are all part of a high-value Staff Member Assistance Program (EAP).
8. Make sure to set three to five year goals for health care savings and measure them. Get help from your broker and insurance carrier help you on long-term goals for your health, disability, and workforce 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. Make sure to set goals for organizational health. Consider the more intangible advantages of a health promotion program and quantify them whenever possible. Include employee turnover rates, cost of new hires, employee morale, benefit satisfaction data, and corporation of option issues in establishing goals. 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’ll 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 appraisals, and regular biometric screens.
