Employee Education & Communications Director Gary Cassidy explains a national study by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Health and Productivity and how you can realign your wellness strategy to bend the trend. Remember, health & wellness is a business strategy, and your investment transition should be based on strategic progression on short- and long-term goals.

 

Resources:
• EPIC: Corporate Synergies’ Lifestyle Management Tool
• University of Michigan: Investing in a Health Workforce to Control Healthcare Costs
• ACOEM: Investing in Prevention Improves Productivity and Reduces Employer Costs

Video Transcript: 
Hi, I’m Gary Cassidy and welcome to another edition of the WellnessMINUTE. In previous editions we’ve talked about how organizations are investing their healthcare dollars. Today we’re going to take a look at a national study and see how you can realign your wellness strategy to bend the trend.

According to research performed by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Health and Productivity, nationally, on average, for every dollar employers spend on healthcare costs only five cents are spent on prevention and 95 cents are spent on treatment.

On average, every dollar employers spend on healthcare costs, only five cents are spent on prevention and 95 cents are spent on treatment:

And remember, based on the University of Michigan study, we know that it’s more cost effective for an employer to keep healthy participants healthy than to reduce risk factors for high risk participants.

Additionally, keep in mind the Corporate Synergies benchmarking report which found that, on average, 40% of total healthcare costs are driven by chronic (treatable) conditions.

Shift the paradigm, and invest healthcare dollars like this:

It’s important to keep in mind that wellness is a business strategy. And that like all business strategies you have short- and long-term goals. Making the transition on how much you invest in preventive care versus treatment should be based on a strategic progression reflected in your organizations wellness program, incentive strategy and benefit plan design.

For more information on this and other health & wellness topics, visit our Knowledge Center at corpsyn.com. Thank you.