Corporate wellness programs are popping up in businesses across the country. And, HumanaVitality is one that is generating impressive national coverage as a result of its validated science and proven results.
Employee healthcare costs and the bottom line.
It's not a surprising fact that one of the largest costs that businesses face each year is employee healthcare.
Darrell Moon is CEO of Orriant, a provider of employee wellness programs. His article on Forbes.com points out that "Of every 100 employees, 25 will have heart disease, 20 will have high blood pressure, 38 will be overweight, 21 will smoke, and 44 will have stress or depression. This is not only a terrible waste of talent and human capital but also a huge burden on the bottom line."
Wellness programs to the rescue.
Sounds like an impossible task to tackle right? But there are solutions in the form of corporate wellness programs. The goal of such programs is to help employees live healthier lives while lowering costs for their employer. And in many cases, wellness programs seem to be working and working well.
In the Forbes.com article, Darrell Moon writes that wellness programs have been proven to help employees live healthier. And in turn, they help the employer's bottom line. He cites a study done by Harvard health economist Katherine Baicker along with David Cutler and Zirui Song. It can be found in the February, 2010 issue of Health Affairs.
They found that medical costs fall by about $3.27 for every dollar spent on wellness programs. They also found that costs linked with days off from work fall about $2.73 for every dollar spent.
HumanaVitality. A rising star in wellness.
HumanaVitality is a complete wellness program developed with Discovery Holdings. It launched in July 2011 and offers rewards based on employee health and wellness activities. "This is the next evolution in trying to squeeze costs out by not incurring them in the first place," said Sean Slovenski, Segment Vice President of employee health programs at Humana. They expect to enroll nearly 1 million customers in the program in the coming months.
You would expect Humana employees and management to be excited about this program. But it's not just Humana and our associates who believe in the power of HumanaVitality. The proven results are getting attention across the nation.
Last month alone, The Economist, The Los Angeles Times, and the National Business Group on Health reported on HumanaVitality.
In the October 8th issue, The Economist, the premier magazine for world news, politics, and business, talks about Discovery Holdings, the creators of HumanaVitality, and its partnership with Humana. The Economist holds up HumanaVitality as a model for using rewards to encourage healthier living. It states that businesses can "… learn from Discovery and other firms that are using judicious incentives to nudge people toward sensible behavior. Their people will be the healthier for it, as will their budgets."
In an Oct. 25th article, The LA Times' Duke Helfand talked to Segment Vice President, Sean Slovenski for a story on healthful habits and how growing numbers of companies are offering money and merchandise to get workers to exercise, lose weight or meet other health goals. Sean explained that wellness incentives are a "giant leap forward in bending the healthcare cost trend."
And Stuart Slutzky, Chief of Product Innovation at HumanaVitality, presented alongside Harvard behavioral economist, Professor Robert Laibson , GE Health Services Leader, Kathy Sanchez and Employee Benefits News Editor-in-Chief, Kelley Butler at the National Business Group on Health National Conference on Oct. 25-27 in Boston. HumanaVitality's presentation merited several positive tweets from Healthways, Employee Benefits News, and HallmarkBiz (Hallmark's B2B marketing group). Here are just a couple of the tweets from the conference:
Healthways: RT@HallmarkBiz: Slutsky: engagement & immediate reward critical to overcome natural tendency to do nothing for ones good health. #NBGH
Ebnews_editor: Stuart Slutsky, chief of product innovation @humanavitality, said merchandise is better than cash for wellness incentives. #nbgh #EBN
Getting it right for employees AND employers.
For a corporate wellness program to really work, it has to benefit both the employees and their employer. For instance, if a program has great rewards, but is hard to manage, there is a greater chance that it will not be as successful. The same holds true for a program that is simple to manage, but is not very motivating for employees.
This is where HumanaVitality continues to innovate. HumanaVitality strives to find the balance between happy employees and happy businesses.
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HumanaVitality is easy for administrators.
The program is designed to help businesses manage enrollments, rewards, and communications with ease.
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HumanaVitality is easy for employees.
The program is based on an easy-to-understand points system. When an employee performs healthy activities, they earn points. The points are easy to keep track of on the HumanaVitality website. In this way, members can see how close they are to reaching fitness goals and claiming their rewards. They can also use the website to redeem their points.
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HumanaVitality offers real rewards.
With this program, employee members can receive tangible rewards for their healthy behavior. Things like movie tickets, gift cards, camping gear, cameras, and even hotel rooms. Not to mention the general effect a healthier lifestyle can bring. And for employers, the rewards can be just as real – in the form of a healthier bottom line, with less spent each year on healthcare costs.
What does the future hold?
Wellness programs like HumanaVitality seem to be one of the very best ways for businesses to lower costs and foster healthier, happier employees. But they must continue to grow to fit changing market conditions and employee/employer needs in order to remain successful.
