What about Small Employers and Barriers to Implementing Health Promotion and Wellness Programs?

With so much debate raging over health care reform, there are probably two things I am confident in…

1. A Health Reform Bill will be signed into law in 2009
2. That bill will contain incentives for Health Promotion

The problem for small employers – and here in fly-over country that typically means employers with fewer than 100 full time employees – is that there is little or no structure in place to implement a plan. There is no staff dedicated to “wellness” and the human resources department is already overworked.  What are the options?

The first option is probably your insurance broker. In fact, if your insurance broker isn’t already providing you with guidance on health promotion activities, it may be time to start looking for a new one.  The brokers that aren’t embracing wellness are the brokers that will soon be looking for a new profession.

The second option is companies that provide turn-key or “semi” turn-key solutions.  Right now, those companies are typically working with larger employers and charge upwards of $100 per employee per year.  A few companies are trying to service the smaller employers – with some success. 

If you’re looking to add a wellness program, understand that there are some unavoidable costs. You will need to invest leadership time – championing the idea of wellness at the workplace.  There will be some coordination efforts that either your staff or your staff in conjunction with your insurance broker must do.  And there are hard costs – health screenings and risk assessments. These costs may eventually be subsidized by the federal government through tax credits.  For now, they can be shared with employees as part of their payroll contribution for their health insurance premiums.

Wellness at the workplace has tremendous potential to improve productivity, reduce absenteeism and presenteeism and make your company an employer of choice.