Dive Brief:
- Employers offering health and wellness programs have moved beyond the standard financial measures associated health care cost savings towards a broader focus on the overall value of health management within a workplace, according a new report from Willis.
- In its Health and Productivity survey, Willis North America's human capital practice found 64% of respondents with wellness programs in place described themselves as Value on Investment (VOI) based, rather than Return on Investment (ROI) based.
- That means a majority of employers have gone beyond the traditional rationale of putting wellness programs in place for the sole purpose of lowering health care costs. Instead the focus is on a range of factors, including employee morale, worksite productivity, employee absence and workplace safety.
Dive Insight:
Ronald Leopold, Willis' practice leader in Health Outcomes, says the results of the report clearly show that more organizations are realizing that the expectation of an immediate return on investment (ROI) for their wellness programs through medical cost reduction is unlikely.
"Worksite wellness requires a sustained effort, including annual program review and long-term program management. Companies who adopt a true culture of health better position themselves for increased profitability in the long run,” Leopold says.
That doesn't mean employers are not concerned with healthcare costs, with 50% of respondents saying they were “more concerned about medical costs in the next three years, than in the last three years.” Projected increases in medical trends in 2016 and the looming Cadillac Tax in 2018 are two reasons why. But rather than looking to wellness as a cost cutting strategy, they see more hope for focused, data-driven solutions to achieve sustained cost reduction.
