Viewpoint: Employee wellness plans less costly than insurance claims

As the cost of providing health-care insurance for employees has skyrocketed in recent years, employers have sought -- sometimes in vain -- ways to manage those costs. Some employers, faced with expenses beyond the reach of company resources and employee pocketbooks, have dropped health-care plans entirely.

While most plans rely more and more heavily on employees to share the financial burden of coverage, there also has been a significant shift toward putting more expectations on employees both to manage their consumption of health care and to improve their own health factors in an effort to avoid the high costs of today's medical care.

As a result, wellness programs for employees have become a boom industry. A Google search of the Internet for "company wellness programs" produced more than 5 million  -- million! -- Web sites devoted to the issue.

Some employee wellness programs reward participants with lower deductibles or co-pays on their health insurance. Others emphasize the positive aspects of healthy lifestyles that could both improve employees' overall fitness and reduce the cost of insurance through fewer and lower claims for medical care.

Corporate America has tended to join the wellness bandwagon. Employers are motivated by the search for any way to bring the cost of health-care programs under control. Shape-up programs like the one sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce promote physical activity in the spirit of friendly competition. Some corporate wellness programs become a major component of benefit packages. In-house fitness centers, at-desk exercises to relieve stress and financial incentives for weight loss and smoking cessation are becoming more and more familiar in the workplace.

Some employees, however, resist this move away from traditional health-care insurance coverage. They cite inequities in plans that reward lifestyle changes for some but offer few incentives for employees who are already physically fit and don't smoke or engage in other health-threatening habits.

How far employers should go in promoting activities considered beneficial to overall employee health -- with an anticipated increase in productivity as well -- has yet to be determined. But companies with established programs say there are measurable improvements both in the health of employees and in the cost of providing health-care plans.

Considering the alternatives -- still higher health-insurance premiums or the loss of coverage due to out-of-reach costs -- it would seem that most employers would have an interest in developing some kind of wellness programs. Getting employees to go along and helping them understand the personal benefits as well as the cost factors are key to a successful plan.

While America continues to learn more about personal health issues and their relation to corporate overhead, far too many able-bodied employees continue to overeat, smoke, abuse drugs and alcohol and avoid beneficial physical activity. This should be a major concern for employers and employees -- and organizations that look after the welfare of both.