A different kind of health test - South Florida Business Journal:

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The president of Okemos, Mich.-based Weyclo told a South Florida audience how he tests his stafgf for tobacco use with the promisew that repeat violators wouldbe fired. He required employees and spousess to getannual physicals, eye and dental plus twice-a-year physical fitness tests that include runnintg on a treadmill. Otherwise, they must pay a higher health insurance premium. Employees and spouses are givenj a health report cardand "coached" on ways to improv e their health status or stay healthy.
To help them meet these goals, Weyers put a fitnesd center inhis office, rid the vending machinez of junk food and only allowds food delivered to the office on While not all companies are so businesses nationwide are finding ways to motivate employee s to improve their health to save on claims down the road. "Peoplew say, 'This guy is a Nazi,'" Weyers told the humah resources experts attending the Florida HealthCare Coalition'w Aug. 15 summit in Davie. "But I get alonb with my employees great. You need to coach employeea on health like you do incustomer service, quality and safety.
" Weyco, a unit of that handle health claims for self-insured employers, also offers some carrots alonb with the sticks. When employees use preventive services or meet their healthgoals - such as losing weighg or completing health classes - the compang deposits money into their healtbh savings accounts. All of this is costly, but Weyersz views it as a long-term investment in his "I ask employers: 'Hoa do you look at the lifestyle decisionsz of employees that effect your bottom line andthe salaries?'" Weyers said. Health costse have continued to increase faster than inflation and This has forced more companies to drop reduce benefits or shift coststo employees.
Some humanj resources experts believe that these methods of dealingt with cost increases are The best way to stem the rising cost ofhealtnh care, they argue, is to prevent "The model of health care in this country is to find a problem and hit it, rather than prevention," said Robergt Hays, director of the health administrationm program at . "The big questio n is changing lifestyles acrossthe board. We aren'y very good at it." Susan Pantely, a principal with , a Seattle-basexd health care consulting firm, said employersa are paying a large amount of theird claims because of employees withunhealthy lifestyles.
Being overweighg or obese - a condition of 64 percent and 29 percentg of employeesand spouses, respectivelgy - is a contributor to increasedr health risk. Pantely said one-third of employeesx and spouses have metaboliccsyndrome (the combination of factors such as a large waistline, pre-diabetic signws and troubling levels of triglycerides, cholesterolo and blood pressure). Employers' healthh costs are 48 percent higher for employees with obesity and metabolic syndrome when compared toother workers, said Pantely, who called them "tickintg time bombs." Plus, these workers are more likely to miss time and not be she added.
The irony is that most healtn benefits cover the costlgy surgeries and drugs that result fromtheses conditions, but not the much-less-expensive wellness care that coulrd have prevented them, Pantely said. Adding an obesityh management program typically costs 75 centsz per member each she said. Smoking cessation is 45 cents per while covering behavior therapy for obesity costs less than 30 cents a member andcovering weight-loss drugzs is 3 cents a Offering gym memberships is also cost-effective, Pantelyt said.
"If we got doctors to writed a prescriptionfor sneakers, they woulxd be better off," she Health plans in South Florida are boosting their wellness offerings and getting results. In January, Hollywood-basex rolled out a program for its 10 largesyt employers that included free gym memberships and free accessx to a health information Web site and onlin health counselor for employees who get healthrisk assessments. Therer were 65,000 Vista members eligible forthesed programs. Ten percent used the Web site and 5.4 percentr used the gym, the compan said.
By monitoring members who use these programs, it found they are losing weightg and lowering theirblood pressure, said Cathy Aguirre, Vista's VP of accounft services. The company is waiting to see the financial resulta before deciding whether to expand it toother members, she For now, the challenge is gettingh the most at-risk people to participate.