Three Years of Worksite Wellness: A Case Study

SALT LAKE CITY - Aug. 28, 2015 - PRLog -- Facing double digit increases in medical costs and in rates of employee obesity and other chronic diseases, a large school district in the Western U.S. implemented a comprehensive worksite wellness strategy. The district partnered with WellSteps to create and administer the wellness strategy.

Since most elevated health risks and associated medical costs are caused by unhealthy lifestyles, this program was designed to target unhealthy behaviors. The program included incentives, biometric screening, behavior change campaigns, health assessments and other behavior change strategies. Participation levels exceeded 80 percent.

Published research demonstrated that, from 2011 to 2014, this program improved nutrition, physical activity, hypertension, hypercholesteremia, and blood glucose at two years of follow-up. By three years follow-up, participants had lower medical costs compared to non-participants. For each dollar invested on wellness, the district saved $3.56 in reduced medical costs. The district saved over $5 million and held their medical cost increases to zero for over 6 years. Comparable companies in the same region, without wellness programs, saw medical cost increases of 34 percent over this same time period.

Dee Eddington, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan Health Management Research Center confirms, “If an employee population can create a healthy culture and reduce health risks and unhealthy behaviors, over time the company will get to zero trend.”

Since the wellness program was funded by tax payers, these findings show that a comprehensive wellness strategy can improve employee health and control medical costs, and is therefore a sound investment.

Copies of this complete case study and the published research papers are available through the contact listed and at www.wellsteps.com.