Selling Health to High-Risk Workers

    The primary goal of any wellness program should be to return the highest-risk people to low-risk status while helping the other 90 percent maintain a low-health-risk lifestyle, he says. The problem is how to get that 10 percent to participate in managing their wellness.

    Ironically, those with the lowest health risk are the easiest to connect with, says Roslyn Stone, COO of Corporate Wellness, Inc., a health services company in Mount Kisco, New York. "The healthiest 10 percent of the population will come to anything related to wellness because it’s a primary part of their lifestyle," she says. Unfortunately, they are the least likely to need the programs, and there is little cost benefit to gaining their participation. "You don’t need to be concerned about the blood pressure of marathoners."

    For a wellness program to pay off, you have to reach those people who would benefit from some change in their health regime. "In order to see a return on your investment, you need to reach the people who wouldn’t normally join health clubs or check their cholesterol without your encouragement," Stone says. She encourages her clients to target the next easiest group to reach--those employees who would benefit from a wellness program and who can see its importance to their lifestyle.

    To do that, she says, you have to be creative and focused. Wellness programs should be free, convenient, fun, new, and relevant to employees’ needs. To find out what those needs are, survey employees with a list of possible programs and ask which ones they would attend, she says. "Be sure that you don’t include things on the list that you aren’t willing or able to provide due to costs, culture, or services in your area," she warns.

    For example, she had a client that asked employees if they were interested in on-site mammography. One hundred percent of those women over 35 said yes, but management later realized that the program would be too expensive and canceled it. "They lost all credibility," Stone says. She fears that some of the women may have put off getting mammograms in anticipation of the event.

    The survey will tell you what people want and enable you to target a few key programs for each quarter, she says. Once you know what you are offering, inundate employees--and their spouses--with marketing materials to let them know about upcoming events. "Women make 80 percent of the health-care decisions for families," she says. That’s why it’s important to mail information to employees’ homes or include it with paychecks. When wives can encourage their husbands to take advantage of a wellness program, participation is greatly increased.

    And whenever possible, offer tantalizing freebies to lure them. "Food always gets people’s attention," Stone says. "It’s worth it to invest in a plate of muffins--or even Krispy Kremes--if it will get them to participate."

    Then, once you put the effort into getting maximum involvement, make the most of it by offering the most comprehensive information or screenings. For example, a cholesterol screening, which costs $10 to $15 per person, checks for five different health conditions, whereas a chemical screen, which costs $17, checks for 24 conditions, including diabetes and cardiac issues. "For a few more dollars, you can get a lot more information."

    Hunnicutt takes his approach to wellness participation one step further. He believes maximum participation won’t come only as a result of aggressive marketing. "Employees need to be held accountable for their health decisions and the resulting costs associated with failing to take care of themselves," he says. "Seventy percent of diseases are preventable with lifestyle modifications."

    He feels that if a person is going to participate in a benefits package, which he estimates costs a company roughly $4,000 per person per year, the company has the right to ask that person to participate in a series of common health screens or a health appraisal. "You can’t tell employees that they have to participate in a screening," he says, "but you can make it a condition of taking part in a benefits or incentive program."

    To protect privacy, the screens are conducted by a third-party administrator that provides the employers with an aggregate report of the overall health and risk levels of the company, keeping the individuals’ information confidential. This way, employees find out which health problems they are personally at risk for and can get help right away instead of waiting until symptoms appear, he says. In addition, the company can implement targeted wellness programs, which are more likely to be taken advantage of because people are aware of their conditions.

    "Employers need to be more savvy about managing their health-care costs and linking health to business objectives," Hunnicutt says. "This is the first step."

Workforce, December 2002, pp. 74-76 -- Subscribe Now!