Cathie Ramey
RedwoodAge.com

In what may be a boon to boomers fighting high health costs, nearly two-thirds of American companies are focusing on the importance of health and productivity to improve the well-being of aging workers.

The focus for achieving a healthier, more productive workforce is shifting from treatment to prevention through the implementation of wellness programs.  This comes at a time when many boomers are also focusing more on keeping themselves in shape to help stave off problems like diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

"By providing their workforce the tools and resources to improve their health, employers are making a commitment to invest in their employees, leading to a more productive workforce," said John Zero of Aon. "This is a change from the traditional perspective of cutting medical program costs without regard to long-term impact or worker productivity.  

Workes with a median salary of $48,000 pay the equivalent of about a month's take-home pay ($3,120) for employer-sponsored health care coverage, according to a survey conducted by Aon Consulting.  In addition,  the cost of health care coverage through work has jumped 22 percent for workers since 2006 and10 percent for employers in the same time period.

Wellness programs  
The wellness programs, which tripled between 2007 and 2008, are designed to prevent the development of chronic conditions that plague many adults today such as diabetes and heart disease.

The following are the top five wellness programs employers are undertaking in 2008. The percentages for last year are shown in parenthesis:

•     Promotion of exercise/physical activity - 68 percent (19)
•     Disease management programs - 60 percent (18)
•     Health risk appraisals - 48 percent (14)
•     Biometric screening - 47 percent (12)
•     Telephonic health care coaching - 46 percent (14) .

"These figures show that employers now recognize the link between employee lifestyle behaviors and medical spend," said Aon Health Care practice leader Tom Lerche. "Chronic conditions, for example, are influenced by smoking, obesity, poor nutrition and leading a sedentary lifestyle, and account for more than 60 percent of healthcare costs."

Leche points out that "through stress management, weight management and smoking cessation programs, employers can focus on the root causes of these chronic conditions to reduce health risk factors among employees and dependents, which lead to a lower rate of increase in healthcare costs."

Brain Drain
Retiring boomers are expected to contribute to a skilled worker shortage in the next 10 years and wellness and health promotion programs are seen as employee retainment tools as wells as a means of reducing employee absenteeism and lowering disability costs. Employers are embracing this new opportunity to keep experienced workers healthy and on the job past normal retirement age.  

Many companies are offering employees incentives to participate in their wellness programs. Almost one-fourth of those surveyed offer incentives to take health risk appraisals while one in five offer incentives for completing health programs for weight management or smoking cessation.

While incentives may be given in the form or gift cards and merchandise, only 1 in 10 companies offer employees a reduction in the amount of money they contribute to their health insurance premium.

The value of promoting and rewarding a healthy lifestyle to an aging workforce cannot be overlooked and employer-sponsored wellness programs demonstrate a willingness to encourage as well as benefit from such programs. Both tracking and communicating the results of these activities is believed to be equally important.

"Effectively communicating data with the workforce also helps establish a benefits partnership between the employer and employee, as they work together to influence outcomes and reduce healthcare costs," said Lerche. "Employees will be much more appreciative and engaged if they are presented with data tracked over time that explains why benefit changes are being made."