Small and large organizations carry a significant proportion of the provision of health care for families in this country by providing healthcare insurance for their staff members. With the escalating increase in healthcare cost many organizations are attempting to slow the increase of healthcare insurance premiums by providing creative cost control initiatives. Greater emphasis is being put on primary prevention to keep staff members healthy and secondary prevention to identify and treat health conditions before they can become serious.
At some workplaces, staff members are being encouraged to take greater responsibility for their health related behaviors through risk rated incentive packages. Linking wellness to employee benefits of gain sharing and co-payment cost reductions will provide new opportunities requiring efforts of collaboration between the human resource managers and the Worksite Wellness Program specialists. These two sets of professionals may also work together for the ongoing evaluation of cost effective Worksite Wellness Programs.
In conjunction with the above initiatives most large organizations also have a nurse or physician on staff to dispense on-site medical and preventive care. Some initiatives have also found it cost effective to provide their own physical therapy programming to assist injured and infirm workers in regaining optimal functioning. A comprehensive selection of health related employee services and benefits would include the following:
• Free or low cost health screenings provided on site by employer clinical personnel or through outside contractors:
Serum cholesterol
Colorectal cancer screening
Blood pressure screening
Mammography
Vision and hearing screening
Diabetes
• Referral procedures (e.g., Hypertension, Cholesterol, Cancer)
• Provision of first aid and emergency care
• Disease control and prevention initiatives
• Child and infirm adult care services
• Pre-retirement and financial planning
• Ongoing learning/educational opportunities
• Coordination of employer picnics and outings
• Parent-child work visitation initiatives
• Workers compensation/rehabilitation
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