The Business Value of Health

Trends are converging in the healthcare marketplace and change in our healthcare system is definitely gathering on the horizon. In fact, there is a new value proposition emerging —one that leading employers and health plan providers are uniquely positioned to leverage. That new value proposition is the business value of health.

As a Human Resource professional, you are surely aware of the health-related losses that are increasingly threatening the U.S. economy. Burgeoning health benefit costs are eroding profits and threatening the survival of many companies. Rising healthcare costs and health-driven productivity losses pose significant challenges for employers. On average, for every dollar of medical and pharmacy costs, employers are experiencing two to three dollars of health-related productivity costs, translating to approximately $20,000 in total costs per employee per year.1,2,3

Today's growing concern for U.S. businesses are these unhealthy workers. Companies continue to struggle with how to counteract rising costs and lost productivity.

As such, more and more employers and health plans are investing in the health and human capital of their people as they look to decrease their total health-related costs (medical/pharmacy costs as well as the health-related productivity costs of absenteeism and presenteeism). They understand that the return on this investment transcends traditional measures of medical costs to include the metrics of productivity improvement and, therefore, one of the leading metrics of value for innovative employers.

Why is this? Because today’s reality is that health is a performance driver. Employee health and productivity are inextricably linked. Investing in health not only controls expenses but also protects, supports and enhances human capital. Increasingly, business leaders are realizing that the health of the American workforce is directly related to the health of the American economy.

By investing in their most important asset — their people, or 'human' capital — progressive employers nationwide are showing the way, ultimately, to control rising healthcare costs by improving the health of their employees.

Investing in the Health of “Human Capital”

According to Sean Sullivan, President and CEO of the Institute for Health and Productivity Management, the new Human Capital Model centers on the recognition that the total health of the workforce is the biggest untapped source of employers' performance and competitive advantage. He emphasizes that there must be an integrated management of health and wellness for the entire employee population.

Traditional solutions to address the growing health and financial crisis have only complicated the situation. Although many employers have numerous health programs and resources in place, they are frequently disconnected and uncoordinated. This leads to confusion and fragmentation that interferes with the potential benefits these new programs can provide.

Difficulties in locating the right providers, scheduling appointments and other common frustrations lead well-intended people to give up on the system. The result: inappropriate or unnecessary emergency care and hospitalizations, and/or duplication of effort. In fact, more than one-third of employer healthcare dollars are spent on medical errors, preventable interactions, unnecessary surgeries and other poor quality care.

Instead of preventing adverse consequences and resulting costs, these uncoordinated health benefits and programs can lead to increased anxiety and frustration, decreased morale and overall dissatisfaction with the very benefit programs intended to encourage better health and well-being. Likewise, additional increased costs and lost productive time result when participants have difficulty locating the right resources and appropriate care.

Industry leaders in health and productivity all agree that improving the health of employee populations centers on the integrated management of a number of “silos,” including:

• Health, wellness and prevention
• Disease management, especially chronic conditions
• Disability management, including Workers' Compensation
• Organizational and cultural change

The benefits of true integration

While all companies have unique populations and needs, one thing is apparent. Businesses need a strategic and flexible, fully-integrated, intelligence-based approach to manage employee health and productivity. Such an approach creates clear and undeniable benefits, including:

• Better health, quality of care and quality of life
• Ease of access to health and benefit systems for participants
• Lowered healthcare costs
• Decreased absenteeism
• Improved productivity
• Centralized data integration and reporting

Companies can no longer continue with their health benefits as usual and expect to get expenses under control. They can take control by implementing health management programs that span the healthcare continuum and integrating them to ensure optimal impact.

Eliminating Fragmentation and Improving Outcomes: An Integrated Approach to Health & Productivity

Helping employers make an impact on chronic disease and promote wellness in healthy employees will lower human capital costs. Matria Healthcare, the largest provider of wellness, productivity and disease management solutions to the Fortune 1000 companies, achieves this through an integrated approach that aids employers of all sizes in transforming the healthcare system from within.

At Matria, we are helping businesses address their escalating health and productivity costs by moving away from the current, often fragmented and uncoordinated approach to an integrated and fully-aligned system.

We believe the key to a healthy population and reduced overall health and productivity costs is to manage both the "sickest" 15 percent who drive 85 percent of healthcare costs and the 85 percent who are ignored by many health management programs in order to prevent them from becoming part of the "sickest" 15 percent. Our innovative, comprehensive approach offers a fully-integrated suite of wellness, productivity and disease management solutions that address the entire health continuum. The distinct benefits for our customers and their constituents are:

• A one-partner, central source for all health and productivity services with a full spectrum of customer-centric, award-winning programs and tools that range from risk assessment to lifestyle and accredited chronic condition management.
• Our informatics resources, the industry’s leading business analytic tools for real-time evaluation, that predict, apply and prove the value of these services to your bottom line. Using our deep industry experience, we encourage and recognize quality care.
• A scalable solution with centralized reporting that manages total and individualized care, enables better health decision-making and synchronizes technology to provide a totally integrated view of every participant’s health needs.
  For more information about Matria Healthcare and for your complimentary copy of the articles, “Good Health is Good Business” and Measuring the Total Impact of Disease Management Programs, please call us at 866-882-4580.

Sources

1. Loeppke R, Hymel PA, Lofland JH, et al. Health-related workplace productivity measurement: General and migraine specific recommendations from the ACOEM Expert Panel. J Occup Environ Med. 2003;45(4):349-359.
2. Edington DW, Burton WN. Health and Productivity. In: McCunney RJ, ed. A Practical Approach to Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 3rd ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2003:40-152.
3. Brady W, Bass J, Moser R Jr., et al. Defining total corporate health and safety costs significance and impact: review and recommendations. J Occup Environ Med. 1997;39(3):224-31.