wellness, tax credits and other ways to improve your employees health

I keep talking about this as it is central to our message; wellness, prevention and behavioral change is key to keeping your health costs down. However, with small group employers (under 50 employees) there has been no way to see measurable results when implementing such a plan.

We believe those changes are coming. In some states (see below) the conversation is already on the table. I had a discussion last week with Kaiser to see what they are up to. You can see some of it in a post from a few days ago on presenteeism. I admire what they have been doing as it is on the cutting edge of wellness, prevention and developing tools to allow employees access to better care. Aetna and others are doing similar things.

I found this article on Iowa State and some of their discussions for small businesses - highlights:

• Seventy five percent of costs related to health care in the United States can be attributable to chronic disease (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2003). 
• Behavioral choice is one factor that contributes to the prevalence of these health conditions 
• Investment in wellness programs return $4.91 for every dollar spent
• Small businesses lack the resources to implement wellness initiatives
• Iowa is looking into tax credits for such initiatives
• Qualified wellness initiatives must include assessment, evaluation and education 

 I am particularly excited because we have been talking with our clients and prospects about this and believe that California carriers are moving in this direction. I had several conversations with them over the past two weeks to confirm. Give us a call as we are already doing it. Why not get ahead of the curve?