Why Well-Being Matters: A Panel Discussion

Mediaplanet: Why should employers encourage employees to take a more active role in their well-being?

Cathy Kenworthy: Setting and meeting health goals successfully is empowering for both employees and employers, and is consistent with a workplace environment, assuming that issues associated with privacy and fairness are well-managed. The health of an employee base sets a tone for an organization, and the opposite is true as well. Employers pay for more than half the health care in America, which gives the private sector a vital interest in the promotion of preventive care, and an opportunity to take action and generate change. And, with the right approach, one that is in line with an organization’s goals and personalized for each employee’s health risks and goals, the outcome can be truly transformative. The opportunity to effectively apply preventive care techniques within employee populations is known science and smart business.

MP: What do you feel to be one of the biggest problems facing the health care industry today?

CK: The rise in chronic conditions, particularly at younger and younger ages, creates tremendous difficulties for the well-being of a staggering, and growing, number of individuals, creating lifelong health complications. This problem is similar to the problem of wildfires in the west, which have increased in number and impact. The truth, though, is that while the fires must be fought, small and focused investment with proven techniques on an ongoing basis will actually prevent future wildfires. Ignoring these small investments fuels the fire instead of combating it—literally for wildfires and figuratively for chronic conditions.

The good news is there are programs that work to get to the bottom of these difficult issues of chronic health conditions. Actively engaging individuals on a personal level, and focusing on their individual barriers to change, works. In our program, with this personalized approach, 32 percent of those facing pre-diabetes move to a healthy range within a year.

MP: What is one industry trend that is helping to combat that problem?

CK: A “must do” industry trend that helps combat the rise of chronic conditions is to personalize wellness programs for each individual. Wellness really is personal. One person may be working to move from pre-diabetic risk level back to a healthy range while another may be focused on emotional health and reducing stress. Well-designed programs are hands on and led by experts who recognize these individual needs and thrive on finding creative ways to help each employee and spouse overcome their personal barriers to create meaningful and lasting behavior changes.

A successful wellness plan is flexible and tailored to each employee’s needs in the context of that company’s culture. Understand what stands out about your workforce’s health risks and create strategies and programs that address those unique issues you face. Design your wellness program, and your health plan, around data (biometric, demographic, psychographic) around your unique population and your organization will see better participation, engagement and health outcomes.

Mediaplanet: Why should employers encourage employees to take a more active role in their well-being?

Jim Prendergast: Employees should take more control over their health because health care is transferring more and more risk to the employee. Failure to take control of your health will mean more out-of-pocket expense, less employer savings on health care and thus, diminish wage increases. If the financial shift does not motivate employees to take care of themselves and make better, more informed decisions about their care options, then the increase in costs will be shared by all and limit the growth of the company as well as the employee.

MP: What do you feel to be one of the biggest problems facing the health care industry today?

JP: The number one challenge: Uncertainty. This unsettling trend is being caused by a shift toward higher deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses for employees without the necessary tools and education to empower employees to make better decisions. Most employees do not know that they have options when it comes to their care. Although there are many excellent, easy to use tools to avoid or greatly reduce medical expenses, awareness has taken a back seat to the status quo.

Creating awareness is the first step toward engaging the consumer in their health care decisions. Telehealth options, price transparency tools, wearable devices and many other innovations put the employee in the center of their health care and empowers them to drive their health care costs down.

MP: What is one industry trend that is helping to combat that problem?

JP: Health plans that reward healthy behavior and give employees the tools necessary to make their own decisions are a great start. Consumers always want choices, but in health care, that has never before been an option. The health care industry is moving toward a consumer-focused approach and word is spreading that people indeed have a choice. Digital platforms that can give you "in-network options," access to telehealth doctors on your smart phone or use of geo location technology to remind you of your options when you walk into a pharmacy, hospital or urgent care clinic are all readily available and working today.

Awareness of these tools will propel consumers to be equally demanding of health care as they are in booking a dinner reservation, ordering a car service or even accessing TV shows on their devices. Consumers demand choice, lower cost and higher value in nearly every segment of their lives. Health care has the ability to offer that, but unfortunately, too few people are aware.

Mediaplanet: Why should employers encourage employees to take a more active role in their well-being?

Danna Korn: People sometimes want to shirk the responsibility of their well-being to others: “Doctor, give me a pill … Employer, pay my bill … Mom, why’d you pass me those fat genes?” But like anything else, once someone realizes, “I’m in control of this,” they become empowered. When they realize that simple improvements in lifestyle can improve their lives in a myriad of ways, they feel powerful and in control. Think of how helpless we’d feel if no one ever taught us to dress ourselves, and we had to rely on someone to come over every day and zip us up?

It only makes sense that the employer should encourage employees to take a more active role in their well-being. After all, it’s the employer who is typically burdened with the bulk of health care costs. It’s the employer who bears the brunt of rising rates. It’s the employer who gets stuck with the bill for lack of productivity due to presenteeism, absenteeism and ineffective, stressed-out employees.

MP: What do you feel to be one of the biggest problems facing the health care industry today?

DK: “The blame game.” There are obviously many things wrong with health care today, so in the interest of consistency, I’ll stick with the “accountability” theme from Question #1. With people expecting everyone except themselves to be responsible for their health care, we end up with fingers pointed every direction when things don’t work out. Take a look at one of the most pervasive issues we as a nation face: obesity. There are all sorts of excuses people use: “It’s genetic;” “I don’t have time to work out;” “It’s too expensive to eat right;” “I’m injured and can’t exercise.” Of course, some of these are legitimate arguments, but none explains the entire issue. It isn’t until people stop playing the blame game that they can take control, improve daily habits and enjoy a lifestyle of improved health.

I expect this will be exacerbated with millennials, a generation reputed to be quick to pass the accountability torch. While many speculate they’ll mature out of that, it’s likely to cause an additional burden on the health care industry in the meantime.

MP: What is one industry trend that is helping to combat that problem?

DK: Worksite wellness, with an emphasis on programs that actually work, as opposed to stale, ineffective one-time events like over-rewarding people to take health assessments. Most employers today see wellness as a business imperative, encouraging employees (and spouses in many cases) to take an active role in improving daily health habits.

Worksite wellness is evolving from the days of old—in which biometrics, coaching and health assessments were considered the cornerstones of wellness—to one in which the focus is on sustained engagement: the kind that truly helps people improve daily health habits. Employers are realizing that it’s not just about checking the traditional boxes (“Do you have a health assessment?”), but about creating an energized, genuine culture of wellness that permeates the organization on every level. In doing so, they’re giving employees the tools and motivation they need to take accountability for their own health improvement, which will have enormously positive ramifications for the health care industry as a whole.

Mediaplanet: Do you think that it is important for employers to encourage their employees to take a more active role in their well-being?

Jan Bruce: Command and control is out. The strategy today is to take care of your employees and they’ll take care of your business. Inherent in this idea is to encourage people to take a more active role in their well-being. What’s really significant is the profound impact that emotional well-being–stress management, resilience and mindfulness can have on employee productivity, capacity and motivation. People are working harder, working longer and, are often actually doing more jobs as technology enables us to complete more tasks. It’s really important to recharge. We recharge our cell phones each night. Let’s recharge ourselves as well. 

MP: What do you feel to be one of the biggest problems facing the health care industry today?

JB: The biggest issue facing health care industry today is turning from insuring the cost of people being ill to being an active partner in keeping people well. Health care companies don’t do a lot for healthy people. There are elaborate systems set up for the expensive, chronically sick people. It’s imperative to find ways to keep the healthy people from becoming the next wave of costly illness. The constant juggling act—the effort to manage the competing demands of work and life—prevents people from making the best choices for their long term health.

MP: What is one industry trend that is helping to combat that problem?

JB: Resilience. Helping people cope and be more engaged and self-aware. Emotional well-being has conventionally been seen as the domain of crisis based solutions: employee assistance programs, counseling, hotlines. But demands on today’s workforce require that we be more proactive. Resilience needs to work hand in hand with diet and exercise so that people are able to self-manage, better able to make (and hold onto) the practical, healthy changes that would make a positive difference. Resilience is the first line of defense.