“To get people to change their behaviors and actually to pay attention to wellness and prevention is a job in-and-of-itself.”
That shift to better living habits, said Matt Fair, chairman and president of The Connecticut Benefit Brokers and executive representative at Pierson & Smith, an independent and privately owned insurance firm in Norwalk, has a new ally in the form of a government workplace grant program: “This grant for smaller employers is essential.”
The health care reform act calls for federal grants for small businesses to provide employees access to workplace wellness programs. These programs include health education, screenings and health risk assessments, initiatives to change unhealthy behavior, and policies to encourage healthy lifestyles, healthy eating, increased physical activity and improved mental health.
According to the federal Department of Health and Human Services, under the new legislation there will be a five-year, $200 billion program for implementing comprehensive workplace wellness initiatives. Grants will be available to eligible employers who provide their employees with access to a new wellness programs.
Eligible employers include businesses that employ fewer than 100 employees who work 25 hours or more per week and did not have a workplace wellness program as of March 23, 2010. Following a governmental study on wellness programs, the incentive may be increased to as much as 50 percent of a company”™s total wellness program costs.
“Unfortunately, I don”™t think the wellness and prevention is being emphasized enough,” said Fair.
Fair said things as simple and personal as sleep, diet, medication regiment and smoking cessation all factor into the final greater burdens of health care.
“That”™s the biggest problem with our health care system today,” said Fair. “Diabetes, obesity; all chronic conditions, the best thing we could do is put more focus in that direction.”
Fair said a greater emphasis on wellness and prevention is the key to making the reform feasible.
“We”™re not focused enough on the cost, which is where wellness and prevention are and where the focus should be,” said Fair.
Ruben Nogueira, partner at Benefit Planning Services in Norwalk, said for all of the gyms, diets and low-calorie food, Americans still don”™t take very good care of themselves. He said the country”™s general health issue is now being properly identified front and center as a financial issue.
According to Robert Noonan, principal and benefits attorney with Robert Noonan and Associates in Middlefield, President Barack Obama has signed an enabling executive order to get the wellness and prevention program off the ground.
“From an employer standpoint what you”™re hoping to create with wellness is a more productive, healthy, consumer-oriented population and in the long-term getting some type of return on that,” said Fair.
Fair said having employees see the benefits can be hard and he has seen businesses going with both carrot and stick approaches.
“If you”™re doing these things for a reason, you”™re going to qualify,” said Fair. “But the money is going to go very quickly.”
Fair said the real challenge will be wellness and prevention reflecting lower premiums from insurance companies for small businesses, because the rates are community-rated.
“For small employers, your premium rates aren”™t based on your own claims,” said Michael Sutton, partner at Benefit Planning Services. “They are based on the pool.”
Sutton said that for wellness and prevention incentives to have a direct bearing on a small business”™ bottom line the proprietor would need to encourage their peer businesses to adopt programs ”“ an unrealistic position from an owners perspective.
“There is no immediate reward,” said Sutton. “It”™s about being able to see the long term: a healthier and happier work force, a cut-down on sick days and absenteeism.”
