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The health insurance costs of unhealthy employees
The National Coalition on Health Care has found that healthcare costs are rising at a rate of 6.9 percent annually! This huge rise can be tied to the number of Americans that are obese and the number of Americans that participate in unhealthy lifestyle choices. The average cost of healthcare per person in the United States is $7,900. Employers are feeling a big sting of healthcare costs because their premiums are constantly rising. In 2008, the annual healthcare costs rose by $2,700 per family of 4!
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Employers are trying to battle the rising costs of healthcare by implementing wellness programs and penalty programs. The wellness programs are based on incentives that motivate employees to lose weight or improve their health in some way or another. Penalty programs focus on charging the employee more money for their lifestyle choices. For example, an obese employee would be charged an extra $30 a month to pay for their healthcare. This is because the obese employee is considered a high-risk employee and they put the company into a high-risk pool, which charges more money in health insurance premiums.
The wellness programs are a great way to cut costs at your company. Some companies will see a huge return on their investment, which can be upwards of $20 for every $1 invested. Other companies will see a nice return which is just about $3 for every $1 spent. This is still a nice return to have for any company. If you are tired of paying more money in healthcare costs, you should seriously consider a wellness program.Here are some tips to help you understand how a wellness program will benefit your company:
- Reduced healthcare costs - When you implement a wellness program, health insurance companies tend to reduce their premiums. You will also find that your staff members are healthier so they aren't using as much of their health insurance benefits.
- Reduced sick leave time - Employees that are healthy spent less time away from work. If you have employees that are smokers or overweight, they tend to be at a higher risk for heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and a handful of other high-risk problems. When your employees are healthy, you are less-likely to pay for temporary employees to come in and cover for your full-time employees.
- Increased productivity - Since your employees are healthy, they are less-likely to take time off and they are less likely to become tired at work. Healthy employees are less likely to experience stress and they have improved concentration, all which help to increase productivity.
- Improved employee satisfaction - Another benefit you will see from a wellness program is the improved employee satisfaction ratings at your company. Since wellness programs are seen as an employee benefit, it is easier to recruit new employees and it can help you with employee retention. Most wellness programs offer some type of incentive to their employees, which is why they are so popular among employees.
- Reduced Presenteeism - Presenteeism is the negative impact a sick employee has on their co-workers. When an employee is sick and continues to come into work, they increase their co-workers chances of getting sick. This causes employee morale to decrease over the whole company and it can take awhile before you can build-up a healthy office again.
You can do small things to improve the health of your employees. Start promoting exercise during work hours and provide healthier snacks and meals for your employees. If you can get your employees to consume healthier foods and exercise regularly, their chances of getting sick significantly decrease and this will have a direct impact upon your healthcare costs.
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