How to lower the cost of having unhealthy employees

Employers are in an ever tightening grip of rising health care costs.While some employers have simply pulled offering health benefits to their employees others are trying to find ways to cut costs and still have health benefits they can offer their employees.One of the best ways to cut health insurance costs is to understand how unhealthy and sick employees affect the costs of health insurance.Then employers can take steps to lower the impact that unhealthy employees are having on their health insurance premiums and ultimately on their bottom line. If you are an employer here is what you should know about how unhealthy employees are costing you money.

• Smoking-Employees who smoke ultimately end up costing their employer big bucks.Smoking has been conclusively linked to several serious diseases including emphysema, lung cancer and other respiratory problems.These are all costly medical problems that can easily drive up a company's health insurance premiums if only one employee comes down with this. In addition it has been shown that smokers have a much higher rate of other illness resulting in higher absenteeism and needing to take more sick days.And if the smoking employees manage to remain healthy they often require longer breaks for smoking resulting in more time away from the workplace.This results in lower overall productivity.There are other costs to factor in as well.Smoking can cause significant damage to the surroundings.Even with a smoke-free policy smoke and the accompanying chemicals from nearby smokers can over time affect the carpet, furniture and other equipment within an office building.Coupled with the increased costs of having to clean ashtrays and provide smoking areas and maintenance costs really go up.The good news is that it is highly cost effective for employers to offer smoking cessation programs to their employees.Studies also show that these programs have a higher degree of success when done at work.
• Overweight and under active employees-Obesity has reached near epidemic proportions in the United States.Employees who are obese or simply not physically able to do their jobs (due to lack of activity) are costing employers a lot of money.Studies show that overweight and out of shape employees are sick much more often and when they are sick their health care bills tend to run much higher than their physically fit counterparts. Obesity problems often bring on diabetes, high blood pressure and other cardiac concerns.More obese employees are involved in disability claims with the majority being from falling or slipping.In addition obese employees tend to have more accidents putting themselves and others at risk. Employers need to understand the clear health costs that overweight and under active employees pose to their bottom line.But in addition it has been shown that overweight employees tend to be harder on equipment, furniture and other office supplies driving the costs up as well.While employers must be careful not to discriminate against overweight employees it can be helpful (and cost effective) to offer all employees fitness and diet options in their employee wellness program.Employers who are extending help to their overweight employees are seeing significant gains in their bottom line while their employees lose.
• Preventive care-In today's difficult economy many employees are choosing to fore-go their preventive care.This leads to minor problems becoming major problems and affecting the costs of health care for everyone.Employers are seeing the problem with this and have begun removing routine exams and cancer screenings from the deductible so that employees can gain access to preventive care.Other employers are even offering free clinic screening so that their employees can determine if they have a serious health problem while it is the easiest and cheapest to treat.