The Orange County Library System (OCLS) may not be able to single-handedly curb rising healthcare costs, but it can have a pronounced impact on employees’ health and wellness and take steps to lower costly medical claims over the long term.
Employee Awareness
OCLS, which consists of a main library and 14 branches throughout Orange County, Florida, promotes health and wellness to its 420 employees in a variety of ways. “We have over the past several years tried to look at ways we can have an influence on our employees’ health and an impact on our health insurance claims,” says Human Resources Manager Carla Fountain, SPHR.
The best way to accomplish that, she says, is for the organization to increase employee awareness of health issues and ways to improve their health. “If you’re aware of what your overall health issues are, that’s the first step to making changes in lifestyle.”
The organization pays 100% of healthcare premiums for employees and hosts a health, wellness, and safety fair every June at its main facility.
In conjunction with the fair, OCLS offers health-related activities throughout the month, such as Zumba® (an aerobic/dance fitness program), tips for properly washing hands, and massages by students from a local massage school. “They get practice, and our employees love it,” Fountain says.
In late winter, OCLS hosts an on-site event where healthcare professionals check the weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, and body mass index (BMI) of interested employees at no cost to them, according to Fountain.
Results of the tests are printed out for the individual within about 5 minutes, and a nurse meets with small groups of employees to discuss—in general terms—what the results mean. For example, the nurse might say to the entire group, “If your cholesterol is over 200, you might be at risk for some health issues,” Fountain says.
Employees are given a link to a health-risk appraisal (HRA) offered through The Prevention Plan™ program from U.S. Preventive Medicine®.
Under the program, those completing the HRA get feedback on their overall health, issues they need to focus on, and ways to address those issues, she says. They have the option of receiving regular phone calls from a healthcare coach. “An employee can get as much as or little one-on-one coaching as they desire.”
Even those who do not choose the coaching option have online access to a variety of health-related programs, including back pain management, cholesterol management, depression management, diabetes prevention, exercise and activity, skin cancer prevention, weight management, and smoking cessation, she says. Employees log in their progress toward individual goals.
Incentives Awarded
The length of each online program ranges from 6 and 16 weeks, and employees earn points for their participation and are entered into contests for prizes. They are also awarded points for getting annual health screenings, she says.
In addition, employees can receive up to a full day of paid time off for their participation. Those who complete the biometric screenings and take the HRA are eligible for 4 hours off from work, Fountain says.
They earn another 4 hours of paid time off if they fully participate in the rest of the program, such as getting annual exams and participating in an exercise program.
In 2009, 167 OCLS employees completed an HRA, 60% of program participants increased their knowledge of healthful behaviors, 38% enrolled in a diet modification program, 34% enrolled in an exercise program, and 9% lost weight. The organization expects to lower medical claims in the long term, according to Fountain.
Start Slowly
If your organization is interested in launching a health and wellness initiative, Fountain recommends starting slowly. “It doesn’t have to be very fancy or involved. You can start simple—even just offering the screenings one year and building from one year to the next on what you’ve done,” she says. “… All the bells and whistles don’t have to be there from the start.”
Before selecting a vendor to provide an HRA and related services, she says it is important to meet in person with the vendor “to see that they are sincere about helping your employees” and to “see what kind of reporting mechanism they have, so you will understand how the program will be monitored” and what types of aggregate results will be available to you.
Also, be sure that the product is intuitive and user-friendly. This will help ensure that employees use it.