Dive Brief:
- A panel of human resources and employee benefits professionals believe that following a "customized wellness" strategy may be the best way to keep employees healthy and save money on healthcare, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
- As the article notes, health costs have given employers fits in the past, but typical wellness programs — weight loss challenges or wellness seminars — have not proven very effective and may not be the answer.
- Instead, what could be the smarter strategy is following more innovative wellness solutons, such as personalized programs.
Dive Insight:
Stephen Doyle, senior director at UPMC Work Partners, said that with traditional wellness programs featuring health risk assessments (HRAs) or biometric screenings, the odds are high that the people who need wellness most are not getting it because healthier employees are the ones taking advantage.
Three years ago, Work Partners began implementing personalized programs at UPMC that offered financial incentives in the form of deductible credits. Since February 2015, it "expanded outcomes-based incentives, increased the engagement of family members and increased employee engagement by having health coaches and other services on site for health system employees."
As a result, the new program has maintained a 90% employee engagement rate and savings between $1,000 to $2,500 per member from programs focusing on smoking cessation, weight loss, stress reduction and increased activity.
