“In the midst of questions about the effectiveness of wellness programs, one advocate for such programs says the results of a recent survey show that wellness initiatives greatly reduce the risk that a person’s chronic condition will go undiagnosed.” – Benefits Pro, One compelling reason to participate in a wellness plan
Diabetes Leads Among Conditions Which Can Go Unknown
It’s one of the most important reasons why screenings are so important: the unknown.
Screenings regularly reveal conditions that were previously unknown and undiagnosed. Can you imagine living with a serious health condition day after day, and not knowing? This is the case for thousands of American employees.
Businesses that offer employee wellness programs help their employees with these crucial findings, and often save money in the process.
HealthMine recently released a study in which 750 people who were presently enrolled in a wellness program were asked about their experience. Here are some results from that study:
- 28 percent of participants had been diagnosed with a chronic condition in the past two years
- Almost half of those (46 percent) had received their diagnosis through the wellness program
- This suggests they may have gone much longer without treatment had the program not been available
- The study also cites that one third of those who suffer from diabetes are unaware of it.
The solution, suggests HealthMine, is to expand the availability of wellness programs as well as to increase the number of health tests that allow people to better understand their health vulnerabilities.
Proactivity Saves Healthcare Costs for Businesses
“U.S. companies can use wellness programs to chip away at their enormous health care costs, which are only rising with an aging workforce,” says Harvard Business Review.
Businesses face huge healthcare costs. These costs will only swell if employees do not engage in regularly screening. The earlier a condition is diagnosed and treated, the less the long-term cost will be.
Also, classifications of an employee’s condition can change when they improve their health. Healthy employees cost less.
The HBR study cites a study by Doctors Richard Milani and Carl Lavie. The pair studied one employer, taking a random sample of 185 workers and their spouses. What they found was extraordinary.
The participants were not heart patients, but they received cardiac rehabilitation and exercise training from an expert team. Of those classified as high risk when the study started (according to body fat, blood pressure, anxiety, and other measures), 57% were converted to low-risk status by the end of the six-month program. Furthermore, medical claim costs had declined by $1,421 per participant, compared with those from the previous year. A control group showed no such improvements.
The bottom line: Every dollar invested in the intervention yielded $6 in health care savings.
This creates two compelling reasons to start a wellness program: (1) the fastest diagnosis, and treatment options, and (2) the likelihood of massive financial savings as a result of a smarter and more comprehensive approach to healthcare.
