June 28, 2005
More than half of employers concerned about wellness
More than four in 10 employers have implemented a disease management or wellness strategy to combat soaring health costs and encourage healthy lifestyles.
An Aon Consulting survey found that 43% of HR executives have adopted such programs, with an additional 19% of respondents indicating that senior management had asked them to research wellness initiatives.
Some of the usual suspects turned up when asked to identify which conditions concerned HR executives the most. Obesity and physical inactivity (62%) led the list of lifestyle concerns, while heart disease (53%) was the leading chronic illness fear. Almost three-quarters (72%) of organizations that have a strategy in place hold health screenings at the workplace.
"Disease management strategies are becoming more prevalent because they're helping employers address the very real need to improve health, improve productivity and improve health-care costs," says Mike King, senior vice president of business development at American Healthways. "Once a company is able to address its highest-cost employees, in terms of health care, the next logical step is to address the risk factors that can lead to high-cost conditions in the first place."