Toldeo Health Insurance

Toledo area wellness programs healthy in ailing economy : JON CHAVEZ

TOLEDO ZOO attendance is surging this year, but with many Lucas County visitors not paying admission on 'Free Mondays,' human resource director Nancy Foley knows she may face a budget battle at year's end.

One departmental expense that she plans to vigorously defend, however, is the zoo's wellness program.

'As an employer, why wouldn't you want a program that helps people be at work regularly, be happier at work, have more energy at work? And it's a win-win if they're filing less health claims,' Ms. Foley said.

Employers may be cutting staff and slashing travel and other expenses, but few are eliminating wellness programs ' workplace plans aimed at improving employees' physical and mental health through medical screenings and activities that encourage healthier lives.

'The most important thing for people to know is that they are respected and cared for. If you help people to be the healthiest they can be, there will be lower costs on insurance and greater profitability for the company,' said Rocky Roemer, president of Roemer Insurance, of Toledo, one of five area companies experimenting with wellness programs through WellBiz, a three-year pilot program sponsored by the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Ron Geraty, chief executive at Alere LLC, a wellness management firm, recently told public radio that fewer than 5 percent of employers that Alere serves have cut wellness plans. Alere provides services for Kaminsky and Associates Inc., a Maumee firm that provides employee benefits.

Big reasons that wellness programs are being retained: Firms that have the programs had 20 percent higher revenue per employee, one-fifth as many sick days, and improved productivity across the board, Mr. Geraty said.

Jack Hollister, president of the Employers' Association in Sylvania, said wellness programs have been around locally for 10 years or more. But 'it's gotten pretty serious over the last three to five years,' he added.

A recent Employers Association survey of 134 Toledo and area firms found that 13 percent had some sort of wellness program.

According to a 2008 MetLife survey, 57 percent of employers with 500 or more workers are providing wellness programs, up from 49 percent in 2006. Only 16 percent of companies with 500 or fewer workers have wellness programs, unchanged from 2006.

The Wellness Council of America estimates a cost per employee of $100 to $150 a year for an effective wellness program. It also estimates that a program saves companies $300 to $450 per employee per year in health-care costs and through lower absenteeism.

'Wellness programs create 'presentee-ism,' that is, fewer people staying home sick. And if everything's working, you can concentrate more on your work, so you're more productive,' said Jan Ruma, vice president of the Hospital Council of Northwest

Ohio, which is involved in the Toledo chamber's WellBiz venture along with wellness program provider Harris HealthTrends.

Typically, wellness programs use medical or other tests to identify a worker's health status, assess lifestyle and other risky behaviors, and offer advice or counseling.

Programs are always voluntary.

Incentives to employees
But employers nearly always offer incentives, financial or otherwise, for participation. The MetLife survey found that 80 percent of employers with wellness programs provide incentives ranging from gym/fitness center discounts (40 percent) to cash (2 percent).

Participation is maintained through activities like walking or weight loss groups and through health reminders like bulletins or advice from health experts .

Some companies go all out ' building gyms for workers, providing healthful meals, or paying for smoking cessation treatments. But experts said the key isn't how much a company spends, but a commitment to provide some type of incentive, even if it is just a pedometer for walking.

There's definitely a difference in participation between employers who offer incentives and those who don't,' said Miake Freels, a Toledo area account manager with Healthways Inc., a Nashville wellness management firm that owns Harris HealthTrends.

'Participation is usually around 10 to 20 percent without incentives. It rises to 40 to 95 percent, depending on the incentives,' she said.

Second year
The Toledo chamber's WellBiz experiment is using wellness plans provided by Healthways. Five firms are participating: Bollin Label Systems; Brooks Insurance Agency Inc., Fifth Third Bank, Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick LLP, and Mr. Roemer's firm.

The five are midway into their second year of the experiment.

Mr. Roemer offers employees $100 to participate. But prior to the program, he provided an office gym, Pilates classes, health club discounts, 'free fruit' days, and massage therapy.

All of the firm's 40 workers are in the wellness program, which Mr. Roemer said has added something he couldn't provide.

'What we didn't have is the monitoring of the metrics ' the ability of employees to look at their own body weights, their own cholesterol levels over time,' he said.

At the zoo, about 100 of the 159 full-time employees are in the wellness program, which Kaminsky and Associates administers.

Although quantifying financial benefits from the seven years the program has been in effect is difficult, Ms. Foley said there are two things she can document: Morale is very good, plus, 'I've got a pretty healthy group of people.'

The zoo spends between $4,000 and $10,000 annually for wellness activities. To encourage enrollment, those who participate for a specified period get a break on their health-care cost contribution.

Onetime skeptic
Zoo graphic designer Alex DeBeukelaer, 42, said the incentive is 'what makes it really beneficial. One of the incentives is to be healthy, but the other affects the bottom line of your pocketbook.'

A zoo employee for 13 years, Mr. DeBeukelaer was skeptical of the wellness plan at first.

'But I thought that it was a good way to see where you sit on the scale on things,' he said. 'I feel better about myself physically because of the things I've been able to do with the program. It has reminders and it keeps you on a course to keep yourself in good shape.'

No statistics exist on whether the zoo has saved on health-care costs. But Ms. Foley said the zoo's premiums appear to have risen more slowly than those of other firms, based on talks with fellow human resources directors.

'Ours have been single-digit renewals, while others I've talked to are in two digits ' 15 or 16 percent renewal increases,' she said.

Lower premiums
At Kaminsky & Associates, which 3½ years ago began a wellness program for its 10 employees, workers' overall improved health provided an argument to negotiate lower health insurance premiums, company president Andrea Kinkade said.

'We had actually changed insurance companies, but our risk factor had decreased and as a result, we got a 28 percent overall reduction in our premium,' she said.

Jenny Howe, Kaminsky's wellness program coordinator, said that although the company is forbidden from viewing health risk data for any employee, the company does get overall status reports.

'Every quarter we get a report ' as to what are the risk factors ' from highest to lowest ' to determine where to focus our program,' she said.

Kaminsky sells Alere's wellness programs to clients. Ms. Howe said the price ranges from about $36 to $48 per employee per year.

For some firms, even that is too high.

In-house operation
To keep costs down on a wellness program it began last year, Sunset Retirement Communities, a nonprofit organization with facilities in Toledo and Sylvania Township, has staff members including nurses, nutritionists, and therapists provide services.

Medical Mutual of Ohio, through Sunset's health-care plan, provided medical screening and assessments, said Vicky Bartlett, Sunset's chief executive officer.

'The only cost we had as an organization was we decided to [provide] a $50 gift card,' Ms. Bartlett said. 'I look at it this way: We're nonprofit and some of these [programs] are expensive, but we think it's worth it for someone to become healthier.'

So far, Sunset has 90 participants out of 275 employees.

'We don't have the participation that we'd like, but we at least have the ideas out there that we want our people to be healthier,' Ms. Bartlett said.

Immediate payoff
At Fifth Third Bank, spokesman Karen Fraker said adding a wellness program for the 200 employees at its downtown Toledo offices paid off right away.

'What came out of the health screenings and assessments was we had employees who discovered they had health issues that they didn't know they had, and as a result they saw doctors and began treatment,' she said.

At Brooks Insurance, the wellness plan has generated a large morale boost, with groups of employees organizing around different activities, said company vice president Debby Schaefer.

'It's building esprit de corps beyond the wellness program. It's making a real difference in people's lives and their health,' she said.

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