Wellness 2.0:  Better Health, Better Coverage

By JIM PURCELL Just what on earth are businesses thinking?  Companies pay too much for poor quality health care coverage. If this were any other business expense, this wouldn’t be tolerated. Yet, expensive, sub-standard healthcare is something U.S. companies roll over and accept.  There are many reasons why, all unacceptable. Fortunately, there’s a path that companies can take now to address healthcare costs: fostering healthier employee lifestyles.  This is perhaps the only avenue for immediate action that can lower healthcare costs for both employers and employees while cultivating a healthier, more productive workforce.  Your cynical side laughs?  Consider this: “Only private business, not the federal government, can solve America’s epidemic of obesity, chronic disease, and runaway healthcare costs by investing in the health and fitness of their employees,” said Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove in an Affordable Care Act debate panel, a sentiment increasingly echoed inside and outside of healthcare. Employers must move away from the adversarial, zero sum approach of increasing employees’ share of the cost of coverage to a more partnership-centered model of forging employer/workforce partnerships where both companies and employees support each other’s goals, not just in lowering coverage costs, but by improving health.   Increasing coverage in this day and age? Unheard of! But this is not a pipe dream. If companies are willing to make the investment, ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: THCB Source Type: blogs