Your employees spend half their waking lives at work. It’s in the company’s best interest for everybody to be healthy! Basic medical coverage is great for treatment, but not prevention. While employers might be wary of added benefit costs, the cost of not proactively addressing physical, financial, and mental employee health can be much higher.
Preventative Health as a Cost-Saver
Addressing employee health proactively increases productivity, decreases sick days, and even decreases reliance on the health and medical system – which in turn can keep health insurance premiums from large increases.
It all starts with preventative health. Let’s use diabetes as an example. While prediabetes isn’t a serious diagnosis, studies show if your employee transitions from prediabetes to diabetes, their medical expenses can rise by almost 40% (doctor’s office visits, lab tests, prescriptions, and specialty care).
The same study illustrates that an employer’s investment in a preventative lifestyle change program can net a three-year ROI of 19%-42%, saving up to $35,000.
Health Coaching
Employer-insured health and wellness coaching (offered as part of Novus’ Health Navigation Platform) may seem intangible, but the impact is not. Measured results include significant improvement in lowering the risk of heart disease, reducing high cholesterol, improving diabetes conditions, and even losing weight.
Using weight loss as an example, 60% of employees using insurer-based health coaching achieved their weight loss goals, losing an average of 5.8 kilograms.
It can be as simple as telephone coaching; 89% of employees with a variety of disorders achieved at least one of their health goals this way.
Health coaching is not avant-garde any more; it is a $6 billion market in the U.S. alone.
Financial Health
It’s well-accepted (and documented) that poor financial health translates to physical problems throughout the body, including stress-related disorders, increased blood pressure, heart problems, and more. This is bad news for employers, who will contend with reduced productivity and increased health insurance expenses.
But the inverse relationship is also true; poor health affects finances, and this affects employers too.
A 2016 study by Lincoln Financial Group revealed 78% of Americans who exercise at least once per week also believe they’re on track to financial success. It surmises that a healthy lifestyle inspires increased optimism and motivation, which in turn translates to proactively managing finances.
Conversely, an unhealthy person’s energy levels are compromised, affecting productivity and time management – which is bad news for employers, as well as employees, who won’t be eligible for raises and career advancements.
In 2005, a Harvard study discovered over half of the 1.4 million personal bankruptcies in 2001 were due to health issues, in part because the cost of healthcare (especially in the U.S.) is expensive. While medical costs haven’t gone down since then, health-related bankruptcies have; workplace health insurance programs have reduced health-related bankruptcies to just 4%.
Prioritizing employee health is good business. Turnkey solutions like the Health Navigation Platform drive engagement with employees, mitigate health risks, increase productivity, and build a healthier workforce. And a healthy workforce – physically and financially – means a healthy bottom line.
For more health insight, visit Novus Health!
