Small and large companies carry a significant proportion of the provision of health care for families in this country by providing health care insurance for their workers. With the escalating increase in health care cost many companies are attempting to slow the increase of health care insurance premiums by providing creative cost control initiatives. Greater emphasis is being put on primary prevention to keep workers healthy and secondary prevention to identify and treat health conditions before they can become serious.
At some workplaces, workers are being encouraged to take greater responsibility for their health related behaviors through risk rated incentive packages. Linking wellness to staff member benefits of gain sharing and co-payment cost reductions will provide new opportunities requiring efforts of collaboration between the human resource managers and the Company Health and Wellness Program specialists. These two sets of experts may also work together for the ongoing evaluation of cost effective Corporate Health Promotion Programs.
In conjunction with the above initiatives the majority of large companies also have a nurse or physician on staff to dispense worksite 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 broad-based selection of health related staff member services and benefits would include the following:
• Free or low cost health screenings provided on site by business 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
• Onsite Child and adult care services
• Financial and Pre-Retirement planning
• Continued learning/educational opportunities
• Coordination of business picnics and outings
• Parent-child work visitation initiatives
• Workers compensation/rehabilitation
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