logo
Wellness In The Workplace
November 2007
More In This Issue
Sign Up
Quick Links
Workplace Wellness Challenges
success

Yes! Your Insurance Costs CAN Go Down

After implementing the LoneStart Wellness Initiative, Sid Peterson Memorial Hospital sees insurance premiums reduced by 9.1 percent.

Most experts will tell you it takes up to five years to determine a true ROI on your initial investment in an employee workplace wellness program. We agree, but this doesn't mean an employer can't expect to see results well within that five year time frame. Payback comes from not only decreased health costs but decreased absenteeism, higher retention rates and productivity, happier workers, and in some cases, lower insurance premiums. These all contribute to the ROI on your employee wellness investment.

Sid Peterson Memorial Hospital in Kerrville Texas knows this for a fact, and has seen a significant decrease in insurance costs due to reduced incident rates -- in less than a year.

The hospital challenged its employees to the 63-day LoneStart Team Esteem Challenge -- twice -- once in February of this year, and again in June. Approximately 25 percent of the hospital's employees participated in the LoneStart Initiative and 17 percent returned for the final weigh-in. Yet this 17 percent has made a considerable difference.

In the first challenge period, 96 employees lost a total of 694 pounds and saw a decrease in BMI of 1.43 points. In the second challenge, 40 participants lost a total of 227.5 pounds and saw a reduction in BMI of about 2.7 points. And the hospital saw its insurance premiums decrease approximately 9.1 percent. In real dollars, this equates to about $58 per employee per month ($46,400), $105 per employee and spouse, and $109 per employee and family per month. With 800 employees, these are significant figures.

"Admissions for six months of the year were down by 25 percent, with length of stay (LOS) per admission down 3 percent for the same period. Reduced utilization, fewer claims and reduced incident rate take the credit for the reduction," says Pat Murray, Hospital Administrator. "The LoneStart Wellness Initiative encourages people to believe that making small changes in their normal activities can have a beneficial impact on their overall health status. We believe it."

"Promoting the health and well-being of all employees and their dependents is an important contribution to a healthy and safe workplace," says Jeff Burdick, Senior Vice President of Wells Fargo Benefit Services. "Raising awareness about the importance of good nutrition and adequate physical activity should be a goal for all of us. It is exciting to see the employees of Sid Peterson Memorial Hospital take on this challenge and see the results of their hard work, including a reduction in their contributions towards premium costs."

Murray says the hospital first initiated the LoneStart Wellness Initiative as a way to promote what the hospital is about-taking a proactive approach to health and wellness. And, SPMH is now taking the program out into the community. In January, Sid Peterson Memorial Hospital will launch the first Kerr County LoneStart Wellness Initiative. "While we reinforce our role as the wellness resource in Kerr County, we are also demonstrating that as a member of the Kerr County business community, we have an interest in promoting a healthy environment for ongoing new business development," says Murray. Jo Ann Hagemeier, MS, RD, LD, Human Resources / Employee Wellness with Sid Peterson Memorial Hospital, and a Certified LoneStart Wellness Initiative Facilitator, will explain the principles of the program at a community-wide presentation.

With the community wellness initiative, Hagemeier says, "we hope to achieve several objectives, primarily to enhance Sid Peterson Memorial Hospital's image as the healthcare resource in Kerr County." She says too that the hospital sees this as an opportunity to provide a community service, to develop relationships with area businesses, and to be seen as a partner in improving the health of their workers.

Jay Seifert, co founder of the LoneStart Wellness Initiative points out that we are all well-aware of spiraling employee health care costs. During the past six years, health care premiums have increased about 87 percent. In 2006 alone, premiums increased more than twice as fast as wages (3.8 percent) and overall inflation (3.5 percent). "We, and our clients, are showing that the LoneStart Wellness Initiative is a way to address-and reverse-this trend."

"When Sid Peterson Memorial Hospital first introduced the LoneStart strategy to their employees, it was intended to help them change their mind-set to one in which they faced and tackled their health and wellness issues and concerns," says Murray. "Now, we're seeing how this not only helps us, as a hospital, and our employees, but takes us to the point of what we can do for our community."

frustration
Are You Preventing Sustained Wellness?

How? It's pretty easy. Let's look at three every day pitfalls -- "Mindfulness, cognitive thinking and self-knowledge." Pitfalls? These sound like good things. Here's how they can work against you.

Consider mindfulness. What happens when managers, administration -- and employees, who are committed to long-term performance, get pulled back into day-in-day-out performance by "all those this has to be done now" pressures? What happens to long term commitments when you say, "I don't have time; I'll do it later; A couple of days won't matter; I'm just too busy?"

As for cognitive thinking, consider the consequences of the short-term perspective. "The future is vague, there's plenty of time to do what I know I have to do -- but I need time to plan and do it right. I have to work with what I can do and accomplish right now."

And, self-knowledge? It's about, "You don't need to tell me this is important. I know what's right. I know what I need to do -- and I will for sure -- next time."

Now take each of these mind-sets and see how they apply to employee / workplace wellness programs. It comes down to a rationale that either keeps you on track with your wellness efforts or allows you to justify the delays that will prevent the initiation and success of an employee wellness strategy, and will cost you dearly.

  • Mindfulness ~ Although you might walk every day, it becomes easy to justify that, "today I just don't have time, I'll make it up later."
  • Cognitive Thinking ~ "OK, I know I need to pay attention to nutritional choices and staying physically active. I'll get better at this over time, so right now doesn't really matter that much."
  • Self Knowledge ~ We've all been there. "I'm watching what I eat. I'm cutting out fast food. I'm finding ways to be more active. And then there's that one doughnut that won't hurt."

Guess what? The right wellness program understands that these are real drawbacks to success, for both you and your employees. And there are real solutions. Solutions such as: You don't have to do everything at once, but you have to do something. You don't have to make drastic changes, but you do have to make positive choices and stick with them. You don't have to take on more than you can handle, but you do have to make the effort. You can make modest but meaningful changes. You can take things one step at a time. And, you can make a difference in your corporate and employees' long-term health and wellness over time.
pie
Successfully Navigate The Holiday Gauntlet

Last month we provided links to both a downloadable PDF with holiday tips, Get Me Through The Holidays, and our Healthy Holiday downloadable 11 x 17 poster. If you haven't had a chance to click-through to these PDFs yet, please do, and share them with your employees. We've heard from several clients that they printed the posters and handed them out to employees-and that the posters now grace many home refrigerators. This month we want to share a few more ways to "make it through the holidays" with the following healthy choice tips.

  • Eating 100 calories more than you need every day equals a 10 pound weight gain in a year.
  • To burn the calories in just 3 "miniature" chocolate bars, you'd have to walk (2 mph pace) for 45 minutes. And, to burn the calories in just one of those "fun size" Halloween chocolate treats sitting in the bowl in the reception area, you'd have to walk up stairs for 10 minutes.
  • If you replaced a daily 20 oz regular soft drink with water, you would save enough calories to lose 26 pounds in a year.
  • If you replaced your daily chocolate bar (1.5 oz) with a ½ cup of low-fat frozen yogurt, you'd save enough calories to lose about 11 pounds in a year.
  • Switching from a daily 2 tbsp of regular mayo to 2 tbsp of low-fat mayo will save enough calories to equal a 10 pound weight loss in a year. (But watch for high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils.)
  • If sedentary adults age 50 plus increased their physical activity to just 90 minutes per week (that's less than 15 minutes per day), they could save $2,200 annually on health care costs.

These are just more reminders that we all have the opportunity and ability to take charge of our personal health and wellness. Don't wait for the New Year. Do it now.

Help us be sure this e-mail newsletter isn't filtered as spam. Please add our return address (info@lonestartnow.com) to your address book. That may 'whitelist' us with your filter-and ensure that future issues get through. Thanks!

If your organization is ready to take responsibility for promoting healthy lifestyles and a healthy work environment, LoneStart is an effective, low-cost and easy-to-administer employee wellness program, which functions equally well as a stand-alone initiative or as a high-impact jump-start to existing or proposed employee wellness strategies.

Contact us today to find out how the LoneStart 21-Day Wellness Initiative will change your workplace.

Please share Wellness in the Workplace with colleagues.

Please forward this newsletter to friends and associates who will benefit from a workplace wellness strategy such as the LoneStart Wellness Initiative.

A Challenge. An Opportunity. A Solution.
The LoneStart 21-Day Wellness Initiative
phone: 512.894.3440