Total Well-Being lowers health care costs

The following case study illustrates how Total Well-Being, a premier workplace wellness program provider, creates and nurtures a culture of wellness with a holistic approach to helping employees and employers see long-term benefits.

“The workplace wellness programs put into place by Total Well-Being have not only helped reduce our medical costs, but more importantly have encouraged our employees to live healthier lifestyles”
-Mike Dunlap, CEO of Nelnet

Featured Customer:

Nelnet Inc. is one of the leading education planning and financing companies in the United States, providing a comprehensive suite of products and services to education-seeking families as well as operational products and services to the institutions that serve them. The company is headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska, but has offices throughout the United States.

Challenge:

In 2005, Nelnet held its first annual health assessment and identified weight management, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and tobacco use as its biggest risk factors. While these risk factors were well within the industry average, Nelnet recognized that as a self-insured company, high health care costs caused by unhealthy lifestyles directly affect its bottom line.

Solution:

Initially, Total Well-Being looked closely at two issues: the high risk factors affecting the employees and the employees' readiness to change. Total Well-Being identified weight management as the top lifestyle risk factor that employees were willing to change. Reducing this risk factor would also positively impact other medical risk factors. Nelnet also wanted to reduce employees' tobacco use, though the employees' willingness to change in this area was lower than in weight management, so the company needed a different approach to solve this issue.

Total Well-Being was able to customize Nelnet's wellness program to address each of these risk factors in different ways by using world-renowned educational resources from Mayo Clinic Health Solutions. With a strong focus on behavioral change, Total Well-Being developed a strategy that offered incentives to inspire employees to make long-term lifestyle changes. Nelnet offered wellness-related activities and programs that, upon completion, gave employees enough points to earn rewards, such as contributions into a Health Savings Account (HSA). The points were all entered by employees using the honor system at www.nelnetwellness.com, powered by Mayo Clinic EmbodyHealth.

"The wellness program includes an annual health screening and health assessment along with lifestyle coaching, self-care initiatives, gym membership reimbursement, nutrition education, a tobacco quit line, and on-site pedometer walking program, among other initiatives," said Mike Dunlap, CEO of Nelnet Inc. "The workplace wellness programs put into place by Total Well-being have not only helped reduce our medical costs, but more importantly have encouraged our employees to live healthier lifestyles."

Conquering weight-related risks

To reduce the weight management risk factor, Nelnet encouraged healthy eating by implementing a Weight Watchers at Work program, updating vending machines to include healthier snacks, and creating a 5-A-Day Challenge that rewarded employees for consuming five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day.

The company also encouraged exercise. Total Well-Being partnered with Shape Up the Nation, a team-based exercise, weight loss, and walking competition. In addition to this 12-week challenge, Nelnet implemented various additional on-site programs such as a "Take the Stairs" campaign and "Walking Wednesdays," a program in which an executive leader led a weekly lunchtime walk.

Sensitive approach to tobacco use

Tobacco use was also a high risk factor at Nelnet, but employees did not show a readiness to change in this area. Therefore, Total Well-Being approached tobacco use slowly and sensitively, making small changes over time to help employees develop an interest in changing their current habits.

First, Nelnet set and communicated the goal of creating a tobacco-free campus for 2009. This long-term planning helped employees to understand the overall objectives while still providing ample time to make the change.

In year one, focus was placed on promoting the online smoking cessation program as well as providing information about the dangers of using tobacco. Six months later, Nelnet made the Mayo Clinic Tobacco Quitline available to employees and provided free nicotine replacement (patches, gum, lozenges) for those enrolled. The following year, prescription strength cessation drug coverage was added and employees were reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses. Finally, Nelnet provided a $60 reduction in health care premiums for associates who were either tobacco-free or were signed up with the Mayo Clinic Tobacco Quitline.

Outcome:

Despite significant increases in health care costs across the country in the last few years, Nelnet's medical costs decreased 10% in the first two years of implementing the Total Well-Being program. More recently, Nelnet has implemented a Consumer Driven Health Plan in which 60% of associates are enrolled as well as an accompanying wellness program that boasts an 89% participation rate company-wide.

At a time when the United States is seeing significant increases in weight, Nelnet has managed to decrease this risk factor by 9% since 2005. In addition, the company has experienced a 26% reduction in the number of associates with high cholesterol and a 57% reduction in the number of tobacco users within its population.

Total Well-Being

www.employeetotalwellbeing.com | T: 303.696.5420 | E: totalwellbeing@employeetotalwellbeing.com