The Push to healthy ways on workforce

The nonprofit social services agency is one of 200 companies in Michigan to sign up for Healthy Blue Living.
The Blue Care Network program, started in October, offers enhanced insurance benefits, such as lower co-pays for medical care, to employees and their spouses who commit to healthy lifestyle goals.
For now, the program centers on six high-impact health modifications that can contribute to lower health costs: Smoking cessation or at least reduction; alcohol moderation; weight reduction; and diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol management.
Lifestyle modification products like these are one of the newest trends in the health insurance industry. Only a few dozen companies now offer them. But expect to hear more about them soon, possibly in your own workplace.
They reward good health practices with lower insurance co-pays, gift cards, diet- and fitness-program discounts, cash and other rewards.
The Judson Center, which faced an 8.5% increase for its Blue Care plan, got a price cut of $58,200 -- a smaller hike -- off its charges for the program, said Paul Kahler, a consultant for Judson project with JS Clark, a Southfield benefit solutions company that helps the agency with human resources issues, as a pro bono account.
"I'd say that's a lot of money," for a smaller company with 360 employees, Kahler said.
Most of the policies don't tie future employment with compliance to health goals. The few companies that have imposed penalties for unhealthy behaviors have invited controversy, as occurred in 2005, when an Okemos firm fired four workers who refused to take drug tests for smoking.
"We believe in carrots, not sticks," said Dr. Jack Mahoney, corporate medical director of Pitney Bowes Inc., an international Stamford, Conn.-based management solutions firm and a leader in the wellness field. It has 34,000 employees worldwide, including 900 in Michigan.

"We don't believe in policing our employees. We think they should be treated as adults."

Companies vary approach
The plans differ from employer to employer. Some choose to deposit money into employee health savings or flexible spending accounts, a fund for future needs such as medical care and life insurance.
Other companies are tip-toeing into the field, with incentives, such as cash prizes for filling out health questionnaires. Aetna Inc., headquartered in New York, has launched similar programs that give discounts to fitness centers and weight-loss programs, said spokeswoman Wendy Morphew. Plastipak Packing Inc., an international firm with 4,600 employees headquartered in Plymouth, introduced the first phase of a new Aetna program last year. Employees who completed a health questionnaire online competed in company raffles that awarded $100 gift cards and, in the final round, a $1,000 cash prize. Nearly one in three employees completed the questionnaires, said Pari Mistry, health care consumerism advocate with the firm's corporate benefits department.

Humana Inc. teamed up last March with Virgin Life Care of Boston to offer "Health Miles." Healthy behaviors are rewarded with as much as $400 in gift cards for 50 retailers, including Home Depot, Blockbuster, the Sports Authority and AMC Theatres. Eight companies offer the plan to 45,000 employees in Texas, Kentucky, Florida, Illinois and Indiana.
Though largely well accepted, the plans bring controversy.
"There are a lot of questions," said Jerry Konal, senior consultant with Detroit-based Mercer Inc., a health and benefits consulting firm.
Smokers may consider it unfair to reward nonsmokers and others with better benefits. Or people worry about privacy issues over health information they list on company Web sites or given to their doctors.
Insurers are quick to respond that the information is confidential, not available to colleagues and bosses. Rewarding healthy behavior helps curb rising health costs, they add.
The Blue Cross program works this way: Employees have 90 days to see a doctor and fill out a health assessment questionnaire about six risk factors linked to higher deaths and health problems: cholesterol, smoking status; alcohol consumption; weight; diabetes and blood pressure.
Primary care doctors score a person on the six factors, giving 15 points for all but smoking cessation, which is 25 points. Everyone gets enhanced benefits for 90 days; after that, those who meet goals set by their doctors can continue to get enhanced benefits. The rest are dropped to costlier standard benefits.
"The way it works is there are two levels of benefits, enhanced and standard," said Dr. Douglas Woll, medical director of Blue Care Network. "The benefit you get is dependent on whether you adopt certain healthy behaviors."
"It's one of our fastest-selling products," Woll added. "It's hit a chord with our employers and members." He predicts it will cover 25,000 members and families in the metro area by the end of 2007.
The program could be a lifesaver for Linda Broome, 48, an employment specialist at the Judson Center.
Though she had a heart attack five years ago, she still smoked, never exercised, refused to take cholesterol-lowering medicine and didn't see her doctor. "I thought I was healthy," is the explanation she gives for not seeing a doctor.
In November, under pressure to keep better health coverage, she reluctantly checked in with her physician, only to find she has diabetes, as well as a breast lump that turned out to be benign.
She's now cut back from 1 1/2 packs to a half-pack of cigarettes a day; takes daily walks and is taking medicine to lower her cholesterol.
"I'm blessed to be working for a company that cares about its employees," Broome said.

source:www.freep.com