Tips for decreasing your health care expenses: Featured Article

When it comes to decreasing your health care expenses the best thing that your company can do is to create a healthier workplace for your employees. There are a variety of reasons that you should create a healthier workplace, but one of the best reasons is that with a healthier workplace you are going to have fewer employees calling in sick. But there are other benefits from creating a healthier workplace, and all of those reasons are going to lead to a decrease in your health care expenses.

Here are some reasons why creating a healthier workplace can help to decrease your health care expenses.

Number one:
The first reason why you should create a healthier workplace is because in the long run it is going to save you money. The reason for this is that every time an employee calls in sick your business is actually losing money. In fact it has been proven through various studies that when your employees call in sick it is actually costing your business around $660 per employee in payroll costs.

Number two:
Another great reason to have a healthier workplace is because of the lack of production that occurs when your employees are sick. And the thing is if you are a small business your employees calling in sick is going to hit you harder than a larger company. For example a large company is not going to notice one employee calling in sick but if you only have 5 employees that is going to be 20% of your workforce, which means that your production or sales is going to be down by at least 20% when one person is gone.

Number three:
Perhaps the best reason that you could create a healthier workplace for your employees is because it is actually going to save your business money in the long run if they don't call in sick. It has actually been proving that employees who come into work sick are actually costing your business money each year, in fact according to a study done at Cornell employees who come into work sick each year actually cost their employees an average of $255 per year.

Helpful Resources: 1. Ten Ways to Reduce Health Care Costs This article talks about what an individual person can do to help lower their health care expenses, but it can also be applied to a business in some of the cases. 2. General Mills: Employer of Choice This article talks about a program that you can enact in the workplace that will help you to decrease your health care expenses by increasing your productivity and not having sick employees. 3. 50 Ways to cut your health-care costs This article gives you fifty tips that you can follow to cut your health care costs in general. The good thing about this website is that you can also use some of these tips for a business. 4. Periodontal Disease Prevention May Reduce Overall Health Care Expenses This article is written from a dentist's point of view, but it talks about how by preventing periodontal disease you might be able to reduce your health care expenses because you can lead a healthier life. 5. Increased Health Care Costs This blog does not talk about the ways that we can decrease health care expenses, but it focuses on how we are increasing health care expenses and in order to manage health care we will see an increase rather than a decrease. 6. Health Blog: Health Care Costs Too Much, But Don't Limit My Choices This blog talks about numerous facts and polls that were done on health care costs in general. Some of the topics that they cover is that people think that health care is too expensive, but rather than limiting choices you still need to be able to pick whomever you want for health care doctors. 7. Issues facing America: Consumer-directed health care This article talks about what consumer directed health care is and how it is currently being used in numerous health care literature. But it also discusses how this type of health care can help decrease health care expenses. 8. Self Employment Tips for Lowering Your Health Care Costs This article talks about how expensive health care can be if you are self employed, but in addition it gives you ideas on what you can do to help lower your health care costs if you are self employed. 9. NASE - Health This article gives you tips on the various things that your business can do to help lower their total health care expenses, including raising deductibles and taking advantage of tax breaks. 10. How to Decrease the Cost of Health Care This blog gives its readers some very simple things that can be done to help decrease the cost of health care, including emergency care and pharamacies.

Now that you can see how creating a healthier workplace is going to help you to decrease your health care expenses you are going to need to know what to do to create that healthier workplace. The good thing is that there are plenty of tips that you can follow to create a healthier workplace, which in turn will lead to a decrease in health care costs.

Here are some things that you can do to create a healthier workplace.

Number one:
One of the best things that you can do to help create a healthier workplace is to provide your employees with an actual break room. It has been proven through numerous studies that about 70% of Americans eat at their desks several times a week, which makes it easy for them to eat unhealthy. So when providing a break room you are going to want to make sure that you have a microwave and a fridge for your employees to use. By providing these appliances for your employees to use they are going to be more motivated to bring food from home, which is much healthier than eating out for lunch every day.

Number two:
Something else that you can do to help create a healthier workplace is to provide hand sanitizer so that employees can clean their hands after sneezing or coughing. Many people tend to cover their mouths and noses with their hands and then they touch doorknobs and other common office items which increases the spread of germs. There have been numerous studies done that shows that offices that provide hand sanitizer or tissues in convenient locations have fewer employees calling in sick. In fact if these items are conveniently placed more than 80% of the office staff will put them to use.

Number three:
According to the American Lung Association each year over 438,000 people die from tobacco related disease. What this means is that our workforce is being decreased by that many people each year and the saddest part is that most of these deaths are preventable if only people would quit smoking. Currently the American Lung Association is working on passing legislation that would require all workplaces to be smoke free. As it stands right now 21 out of the 50 states are currently smoke free. So by making your workplaces smoke free zones you are going to be helping the American Lung Association accomplish their goal, not to mention you will also be reducing the number of people who are suffering from tobacco related illnesses.

Number four:
According to one study it has been shown that many times women do not participate in work related exercise programs because of the lack of time these women have and the times that these opportunities are usually offered. But the saddest part is that these women who are not involved in the work exercise programs are actually the women who could benefit from these programs the most. What this study actually recommends that you do is to hire an onsite occupational health nurse so that you can help address these types of barriers to workplace exercise and also so you can develop an exercise program that will work for all your employees.

Number five:
How people are doing mentally is also another very important factor to consider when it comes to having a healthier workplace. Many studies have shown that most people, over 80%, feel that they are overworked and that they suffer from work related stress. Majority of these people claim it is due to the fact that there are not enough people to get the job done or they are overworked from people calling in sick.

Here are some things that you can do to help reduce work related stress:


• Eat a good breakfast


•  Limit the amount of caffeine you are drinking


•  Take regular breaks


•  Find out what you are tolerating in your workplace environment and then take the proper steps to change it


•  Exercise on a routine basis, this has actually been proven to be the fastest way to reduce stress

But creating a healthier workplace is not the only thing that you can do to help decrease your health care expenses. Here are some other things that you can do to help decrease the cost of your health insurance and your health care expenses in general.

Number one:
Rather than paying the entire premium for all of your employees what you need to do is to have your employees pay a certain percentage or a set amount to help cover the cost. But one thing that you want to be careful about is how high the premiums are compared to how much your employees make. Basically you are going to want to offer them something that they can afford so that they are willing to help share the cost which makes the cost more affordable.

Number two:
Another thing that you can do is to choose a plan that has a higher deductible or co-insurance amount. The reason for this is that the more your employees have to pay out of pocket the lower your premiums are going to be. But something that you want to keep in mind is that this is not always a win-win situation because some employees won't be able to afford the higher deductible so they won't be able to use the health insurance.

Number three:
Something else that you can do to help lower the cost of your health insurance so that you can afford it is to look into a variety of different plans. There are currently several plans to choose from and they each have different costs and benefits. But by doing some simple research you can actually find a decent plan that will fit into your budget. Because you want to keep in mind that the premiums you are paying for your employees health insurance is actually a great tax deduction for your business so that too will lower the actual cost of health insurance.

Number four:
This is probably the top way that you can decrease health care expenses, which is to practice preventive health care. What this amounts to is practicing self-examination and getting health screenings or in other words you want to reduce your chances of getting sick. The best way to accomplish this is to provide your employees with the information that they need, which is information on health screenings and wellness programs that they can attend.

Here are some things that you can do to reduce your chances of getting sick:


• Take advantage of free health screenings at local clinics, health fairs, hospitals or your workplace.


•  Know early warning signs of potential health problems and consult a physician ASAP.


•  Compare fees and costs for medical, pharmacy and surgical procedures.


•  Keep accurate medical expense records so you can itemize these deductions on your taxes.

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