6. What is a worksite wellness program
Definition of Workplace Wellness
Workplace wellness programs are long-term strategies
for reducing benefit costs through sustained
improvements in workforce health.
This may include:
•Education classes
•Subsidized use of fitness facilities
•Internal policies that promote healthy behavior
•Other activities, policies or environmental changes that
affect the health of employees
7. Benefits of a Wellness Program
• Lower health plan utilization, which in turn lowers health
benefit costs and increases bottom line
• Improved employee health
• Improved productivity as healthy employees tend to
perform better
• Reduction in sick leave absenteeism
• Improved reputation as a company who cares about their
employees – aids in recruiting and community perception
• Improved employee morale and stronger employee
retention
8. Changing Employer Perspectives on Wellness
Employee Wellness is….
• Not an expense, but an investment
• Not just a benefit program, but a new mindset
• Not just an initiative(fad), but a way of life
– As with quality, an effort to review risks early and intervene
to prevent ill health rather than waiting to “fix it after the
fact”
– As with learning, a belief that healthy lifestyle skills can be
taught
– As with culture, an integral part of the way our organization
thinks and acts
9. Health Care Facts: Lifestyle Choices
• Unhealthy employee behaviors cost U.S. employers an
average of $670 per employee each year. Obesity accounts
for about $400 of those costs.*
• Alcohol and drug abuse costs the American economy $193
billion per year in lost productivity, health care
expenditures and crime.**
• Tobacco use costs employers billions of dollars each year in
medical care, workers’ compensation, disability benefits
and lost productivity.
* Source: Society for Human Resource Management
** Source: The National Drug Intelligence Center
10. Wellness Programs-A legal Perspective
1. Define the Program
Examples:
– Disease Management -Fitness Center reimbursement
– Wellness Fairs -Weight loss programs
– Health Education Classes -Health risk assessments
– Health Screenings -Tobacco cessation
– Preventive care -Flu shots
2. Determine which laws apply to each
3. Take any necessary compliance steps
11. Which Federal laws affect wellness programs
• Affordable Care Act of 2010
• HIPAA
• COBRA
• ADAAA
• Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act(GINA)
• Age Discrimination in Employment Act
• EEOC
12. EEOC-The Fork in the Road
• EEOC guidance states that a wellness program is “voluntary”
as long as the employer neither requires participation nor
penalizes employees who do not participate.
• Title II of GINA prohibits employers and other covered entities
from requesting, requiring, or purchasing genetic information,
subject to six limited exceptions
– Example: Employees who voluntarily disclose a family medical history of
diabetes, heart disease, or high blood pressure on a health risk
assessment that meets the requirements and employees who have a
current diagnosis of one or more of these conditions are offered $150 to
participate in a wellness program designed to encourage weight loss and a
healthy lifestyle. This does not violate Title II of GINA.
13. Which Laws Apply
• Is the wellness program related to your health plan, or does it
provide medical care itself(HIPAA, ERISA, and COBRA)?
• Does the program involve any genetic information (GINA)
• Always consider the tax consequences(IRS)
• Always consider the program’s impact on disables
individuals(ADA)
14. “Voluntary”
• What is the difference when an
employer considers a worksite wellness
program?
15. The HIPAA Applicability Test
Non-HIPAA Programs HIPAA Programs
Participatory-based Achievement-based
Examples are programs that: Examples are programs that:
Provide incentives for completing an
HRA regardless of results Offer different coinsurance rates,
co-pays or deductibles for smokers
vs. non-smokers
Reimburse fitness center dues Offer premium discounts based on
an employee’s acceptable body mass
index
Encourage preventive care by waiving
co-payments or deductibles Offer discounts based on
maintaining low cholesterol levels as checked by
annual health risk assessments
Reward employees for attending monthly
health-education webinars
Provide free on-site flu shots
Provide fresh fruit in the workplace
16. Common Wellness Programs-Which Laws Apply and How
• Fitness Center reimbursements
• Tobacco cessation programs
• Health risk assessments
• Weight watchers programs at work
17. Fitness Center Reimbursements
I am Thor Company reimburses monthly
fitness center dues up to $50 for any
employee who turns in a receipt
showing payment of his/her monthly
fitness center dues
25. Health Risk Assessments
I am Thor Company offers a voluntary health risk
assessments to all of its employees. Employees do
not need to complete a health risk assessment in
order to participate in I am Thor’s health plan.
However, employees who complete the HRA will
receive a $25 gift card
29. Worksite Wellness Trends
The most common Wellness Programs include:
• Onsite flu shots
• General health and safety communications for employees
• Weight management programs
• Health fairs
• Health risk assessments
• Smoking cessation programs
However, it is important to learn about your employee
group and develop programs that address their particular
goals, risks and needs.
30. Workplace Wellness Program Implementation Timeline
STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4
Get Management Form a Team Analyze Data to Develop Your Plan
Buy-In -Workplace Wellness: Creating Determine Focus -Workplace Wellness: Focusing
a Successful Wellness Team Your Efforts
-Workplace Wellness: An -Workplace Wellness: Employee
Employer’s Guide to Promoting -Workplace Wellness: Breathing Needs and Interest Survey -Workplace Wellness: Using
Wellness at the Workplace Energy into a Wellness Team Incentives in Wellness
-Workplace Wellness: Health
Programs
-Workplace Wellness: Gain Risk Appraisals
Senior Management Support for -Workplace Wellness: Action
-Workplace Wellness: Wellness
Wellness Programs Plan
Environment Assessment
-Workplace Wellness: Why -Wellness Program Work Plan
-Workplace Wellness:
Promote Wellness? Assessment Checklist
-Worksite Wellness – Small -Workplace Wellness: Sourcing
Steps to Healthier Employees Data to Enhance Your Wellness
Presentation Program
-Workplace Wellness: Potential -Workplace Wellness: GINA and
Legal Issues Associated with its Impact on Wellness
Workplace Wellness Plans Programs
Senior leadership should
communicate company’s
commitment to employee
health:
-Workplace Wellness:
Introduction to Wellness
Program Email
31. Workplace Wellness Program Implementation Timeline
STEP 5 STEP 6 STEP 7
Decide on Programs Support Programs Evaluate Results
-Health Newsletter: Monthly Live -Workplace Wellness: Tobacco- -Workplace Wellness: Evaluation
Well, Work Well Newsletter Free Workplace Policy -Workplace Wellness: Sample
-Target specific physical -Workplace Wellness: Evaluation Tool & Measures
conditions with LWWW flyers Maintaining Motivation and -Workplace Wellness:
-Workplace Wellness: Low-Cost Interest Calculating Your ROI
Resources for Small Businesses -Workplace Wellness: Keeping
-Workplace Wellness: Low-Cost Your Healthy Employees Healthy
Activities That Work -Supportive Practices and
-Workplace Wellness: Low-Cost Supportive Benefits
Activities to Promote Weight -Live Well, Work Well monthly
Loss newsletter
-Posters: Hand Hygiene, An
Apple A Day Poster
-Programs: Designing the
Healthy Vending Machine,
Designing a Stay Well Stairwell
Program
32. Creating a Workplace Wellness Program
Gain Upper Management Support
Management must understand the benefits of the program for both
the employees and the organization, and be willing to put funds
towards its development, implementation and evaluation.
To capture senior-level support:
• Link health promotion to business goals, values and strategic
priorities.
• Discuss the specific benefits to the company as employees become
healthier (health care costs will decline, productivity will improve,
etc.).
• Engage mid-level management to participate to show that the
program is for everyone.
33. Creating a Workplace Wellness Program
Create a Wellness Team
Your team should be individuals who will have a role in program
development, implementation and evaluation.
Role of a wellness team:
• Help to garner “buy-in” from both management and participants.
• Develop a program that is responsive to the needs of all potential
participants.
• Responsible for overseeing all of the company’s wellness efforts,
including implementation and evaluation of various programs and
activities.
34. Creating a Workplace Wellness Program
Tailor Your Initiatives to Employee Needs
Gather data to help assess your employees’ health interests and risks.
Data can be collected in the following ways:
• Employee interest surveys
• Health risk assessments
• Claims data analysis to determine current employee disease risks
• Biometric testing
35. Creating a Workplace Wellness Program
Create an Annual Plan
An annual operating plan should include a mission statement for the
program, along with specific, measurable short- and long-term
goals.
Written plans can provide:
• Link between wellness initiatives and the company’s needs and
strategic priorities.
• A means to evaluate the effectiveness of the program.
• Direction as the program grows and changes.
36. Creating a Workplace Wellness Program
Annual Operating Plan
A successful operating plan should include the following:
• Vision statement outlining what you are trying to achieve with the
program
• Goals for the program
• Program objectives and health initiatives to support them
• A timeline
• A budget
• Communication plan
• Implementation plan
• Evaluation – how will the success of the program be measured
37. Creating a Workplace Wellness Program
Choose Appropriate Programs and Initiatives
Select health initiatives that are relevant to the data you collected.
• Should address risk factors of employees
• Should be in line with what management and employees want from
the program
38. Creating a Workplace Wellness Program
Create a Supportive Environment
Provide employees with ongoing encouragement, support,
opportunities and rewards.
• Offer healthy food choices in your vending machines
• Implement a no-smoking policy on your premises
• Offer flexible scheduling arrangements that allow workers to
exercise at their convenience
• Reward healthy achievements
39. Creating a Workplace Wellness Program
Consistently Evaluate Outcomes
Take a close look at your goals and objectives, and determine whether
you have achieved the desired result.
• Evaluation allows you to celebrate achieved goals and discontinue
efforts that are not as successful.
• Surveying employees again can be effective – after participating in
the wellness program thus far, they can provide feedback about
what they liked, what they would change, etc.
Worksite wellness programs are called many things like health improvement health promotion or disease prevention. But, whatever you call it they all have several of the same characteristics. Really what we are trying to improve is our employees health and prevent the risk of disease. So, in order to do that, we need to focus on changing our employees behaviors and our own culture at our worksite. Worksite wellness programs are designed to promote healthy lifestyles for employees and their families. These programs can be simple or complex, and can require a minimal investment of time and money, if done correctly. More substantial programs often use more resources, yet there are many benefits to supporting and encouraging employee health and safety – and they typically outweigh the costs.
Rising health care benefit costs are a significant concern, and poor health habits and unnecessary medical care costs consume portions of many companies’ corporate resources, as well as employee paychecks. Since employees spend many of their waking hours at work, the workplace is an ideal location to address health and wellness issues.
Try to look at this from the perspective of wellness as just an expense. Manufactories used to inspected the quality of there product coming in and would look at the convoy belt after the product was manufactured and would then take out the defects. So, with wellness we believe we can intervene early so we can fix it before bad habits begin.
Before we get far into creating and implementing our Wellness program. We need to make sure they are legal. This is not the sexy fun part of wellness programs. So, one our goals today is to provide a framework of what different kinds of wellness programs you can provide. 1 st step would be to define your program. Your company can provide a very broad program or a more narrow program. And we have listed some examples of the types of programs we have seen in the past. 2 nd step-we need to look at which laws apply to each type of program. So we will go through scenarios on different types of programs elements. 3 rd step take any steps to comply with those laws.
This is really the alphabet soup of the wellness program in terms of acronyms. ACA-Grants for small businesses. This law has set aside $200 Million in grants. They define a small biz as having fewer than 100 employees HIPAA-has a couple of points to it both with privacy and with a wellness program that is tied into a group health plan and we will speak about that. COBRA-continuation of coverage, again…if you fall under the group health plan ADAAA- GINA-this is a broader act and designed to protect employees against the use of an employee using an employee family history against them.
EEOC-title 7 prohibits discrimination of the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin, person over 40, employee compensation and benefits. So, if we have a wellness program that establishes a standard that is more difficult for individuals in a protected class to meet, may be a violation of the EEOC. Some ADA issues may arise in the context of wellness programs may involve an employers obligation to provide a reasonable accommodation to disabled employees in order to ensure participation in the program. GINA-We will discuss what a health risk assessment is they are one the most common component in any wellness program. So we will refer to them as and HRA. HRAs are survey that include questions about workers’ habit, person health and family medical histories. The are used to direct workers into wellness programs such as weight loss classes and smoking cessation programs. Generally there is a low response rate regarding HRAs
The EEOC enforcement guidance has given clarification on this. So , asking a question or examination is voluntary” as long as you the employer neither require participation nor penalize employees who do not participate. So, an employee provided prior, knowing voluntary and written authorization: For example, An Employer offers $150 to complete a 100 question survey, 20 questions of which concern family medical history(genetic information). Employees still receive the $150 as long as they answer the 80 no-genetic questions. The assessment must make clear which questions must be answered and which need not be answered.
HIPAA Programs It is important to note that employers can discriminate against unhealthy employees with respect to things like health insurance premiums, but the employer must follow certain additional HIPAA rules to do it under the umbrella of “HIPAA-compliant wellness programs.” There are five (5) prerequisites to this kind of “discrimination”: 1. The size of the reward or penalty can’t exceed 20% of the total premium cost for the employee’s health coverage. This amount will be raised to 30% in 2014. 2. The program must be reasonably designed to promote good health. Examples include on-site chair massage, aromatherapy or nutrition coaching. 3. Eligible individuals must have the opportunity to qualify for a reward at least once each year. 4. The reward must be available to all similarly situated individuals. 5. The employer must publicize its willingness to provide an alternative standard for receiving the award. The final regulations suggest the following language on all program materials: “ If it is unreasonably difficult due to a medical condition for you to achieve the standards for the reward under this program, or if it is medically inadvisable for you to attempt to achieve the standards for the reward under this program, call us at [insert telephone number] and we will work with you to develop another way to qualify for the reward.” U.S. Department of Labor
The Wellness Councils of America (WELCOA), an organization dedicated to the promotion of worksite wellness, has identified the seven best practices for employers to follow when building a comprehensive, effective worksite wellness program within an organization. Visit www.welcoa.org for more information.