When used for the specific purpose of beginning

Just as importantly, how can you hold providers accountable if you’re not getting what you compensated for?

Here is one proven way – Develop a vendor scorecard. Scorecards alone won’t bring down your health care costs. But they’ll at least help make certain your business

It depends on the steps you take to support workers trying to kick the habit, finds a recent published study .  The Journal of Tobacco Policy and Research found that smokers do, in fact  take more sick days than their non-use of tobacco peers.

And even when the smoker is in relatively good overall health (i.e., isn’t obese, does not have chronic medical conditions), he or she is still likely to have higher health care costs than a comparable non-smoker over the last three years.

How does a smoking ban fit into the cost equation? When the smoker quits, health costs even out.

But when the person only refrains from use of tobacco on the job

According to the Journal of American Medicine, Duke Univ. reseearchers tracked 573 older patients over 10 years. They found that just 16% of those who joined the tobacco use cessation program later returned to tobacco use.

Previous research has found young smokers who try to quit have a 35% to 45% relapse rate within two years.

Given that staff nationwide are retiring later and the cost of retiree health care is sky high, you might want to keep trying with use of tobacco cessation programs, even for the oldest staff on your health plan.

Here is how one small organization in Arizona cleverly tied 401(k) education to employees’ other financial concerns. Rather than simply holding its usual 401(k) open enrollment education meeting, it held a “financial wellness fair.”

Stressed 401(k) importance

Exactly how it worked –  on the same day the company’s 401(k) provider sent a plan rep to discuss the retirement plan, the corporation also arranged for a licensed financial planner to speak to personnel.

The financial planner went first. She began the session by pointing out that she wasn’t affiliated by any method with the management of the 401(k) plan.

That was crucial both for the company’s legal protection under ERISA and for building trust with staff members. She then discussed why it’s crucial for individuals  to take part in the 401(k) plan, and offered attendees budgeting tips and basic strategies for cutting their debt.

The financial planner’s talk cut to the heart of a few major issues that hurt both employee salary satisfaction and 401(k) participation. Numerous studies show that the No. 1 reason many people  avoid 401(k) participation is that they feel they can’t sacrifice any part of their entire paycheck and still survive financially.

The second part of the session was the standard 401(k) enrollment presentation from the provider. End result – Workers were more attentive and there was a noticeable uptick in both new 401(k) enrollments and salary contributions from already-enrolled employees.

The event was such a smash that the organization plans to make the Financial Wellness Fair a regular part of 401(k) enrollment. While the financial planning advice is generic (the organization may add third-party personal finance planning as a voluntary benefit in the future), it’s also timely.

The 401(k) signup appeal comes while the financial planning tips are still fresh in employees’ minds and they’re motivated to do something to help themselves.

No shocker here –  Smokers and obese staff are the highest risk group for developing the sorts of chronic medical problems that send costs through the roof.

A small, but rapidly growing number of businesss are taking desperate measures to avoid the costs associated with these staff.  The step may be broken down into three levels of aggressiveness and potential risk/reward.

Level one –  the business installs a wellness program in which non-smoking employees and those who commit to maintaining a healthy weight receive financial incentives that lower their share of monthly insurance premiums.

Level two –  the corporation disqualifies job candidates who smoke or are significantly overweight from hiring consideration. Alternatively, some firms require new hires to undergo a health risk assessment as a condition of being hired.

Level three –  the employer docks pay or fires employees who fail to control their lifestyle-related health risks. Example –  A corporation called Clarian Health has sent notifications to employees that starting in 2009, employees who smoke or chew tobacco are going to be charged $5 per paycheck.

Are these strategies legal? at level one, the answer is a licensed yes. HIPAAs non-discrimination rules permit such incentives under several conditions.

Wellness incentives walk a fine line respecting health insurance portability and accountability act (HIPAA)s non-discrimination rules. It is legal to reward staff for wellness participation but its illegal to punish those who fail to improve their health.

Example – If an employee follows a weight-loss program in good faith but fails to lose weight, you can’t withhold the incentive. In like manner, if an employee fails repeated tries to quit use of tobacco, you’re still legally obligated to give them another shot next year.

Additionally keep in mindthat, by law, the size of the reward or penalty under your wellness program cant exceed 20 percent of the sum cost of coverage.

The other two are still largely uncharted waters in the courts. Businesss considering these policies should proceed with extreme caution. Remember that the question of “can you do it” (i.e., is it legal?) is different from “should you do it?” (i.e., is it good business?)

At their core, wellness programs require constant monitoring and periodic adjustments.  The wellness programs that get mediocre results are the ones that are left to run on autopilot. That’s why it’s vital to -

1. Know thine enemy You’ve to know what’s driving your largest claim costs on your health care plan – both among employees and their dependents.

2. Create realistic expectations. With wellness, what an business gets will nearly always depend on how much it spends, how well it plans and how well it sustains communications with participants and the provider.

3. Maintain strong communications.  The health promotion programs that achieve the greatest success are those which are communicated aggressively from the get go and are sustained. Repetition is your friend when doing staff member education.

4. Integrate wellness with other benefits. Real-life experience has shown that you should consider your worker assistance programs (EAPs) an extension of the wellness program. You should also consider issues like absenteeism, disability and worker’s compensation to be pieces of the wellness puzzle.

5. Practice what you preach.  The key to ensuring employee buy-in is for executive management to lead the wellness program by establishing a positive example. If upper-level managers are unwilling to participate and address their own health issues, don’t expect many workforce to take the wellness program seriously.