Good Benefits Rise to the Top: Our Ancillary Close-Up Issue
Enhanced Wellness Coaching Can Help Your Clients Face Tough Challenges

by Dr. Charles Nagurka

More employers are discovering that they can reduce healthcare costs by embracing wellness programs. A recent study by Hewitt Associates revealed that more than 33% of organizations plan to boost their emphasis on wellness. Unfortunately, many organizations can’t afford to promote programs like they’ve done in the past because harsh economic times have led to slashed budgets.
Wellness coaching programs are designed to help employers increase engagement and enrollment without additional costs. The best programs include innovations, such as claims and on-site screening data feeds to identify at-risk program candidates, a dedicated wellness consultant team, ongoing direct-to-member communications, a coaching model open to all members who are ready to change, and comprehensive reporting with detailed behavior improvement metrics.

New Identifiers

Coaching programs offer unique ways to reach potential enrollees. At-risk individuals can be identified through a technology platform that scans claims for health intervention opportunities or through on-site health screenings. The result is a wellness program that -reaches more employees who can benefit by adopting healthier behaviors, some of whom may be at risk for serious health problems and not even know it.

This innovative approach identifies 10 times more employees than relying on only health assessments and self-referrals. And because this information is not self-reported, it provides a more accurate picture of a person’s health. The combined data sources can identify people who can benefit from lifestyle change, such as people with prehypertension, hypertension, prediabetes, diabetes, or metabolic syndrome – just to name a few. This is important because this allows for health intervention and helps coaches educate at-risk people about “What’s in it for me?” It’s a much more effective way of inspiring behavior change and reducing their future health risk.

Wellness program candidates can also be identified though health assessment, self-referral, or external vendor programs, such as disease management programs and a nurse-line. All of these features work together to help prevent more chronic conditions and more costly events.

Ongoing Communications

A big problem for organizations is how to create awareness and enroll people in appropriate wellness programs. In fact, many organizations say it’s their biggest hurdle and it’s the area that’s in most need of improvement. Very often it’s not the program itself that’s costly; it’s the cost of employee incentives. A wellness coaching program should provide built-in ongoing promotions without additional costs. These include mass communications as well as targeted communications that are based on monthly claims.

Open Coaching

Another enhancement is the use of cross-trained coaches. This is extremely helpful in coaching people as a whole. For example, many people who want to quit smoking are worried about gaining weight. The wellness coach can help the person kick the habit and develop healthy ways to deal with nicotine withdrawal instead of turning to food.

One wellness company is allowing people to enroll more than once a year. Previously, after a member completed a program, they could not enroll again until the following enrollment year. For example, a member who enrolls in a tobacco cessation and is successful in cutting back their smoking, could enroll again without having to wait another year to get help with quitting altogether.
Statistics show that only 8.5% of people who want to quit smoking actually do so without the help of a coach, according to the Dept. of Health and Human Services. In the old model, this person would have to wait until the next benefit year. By then, it’s quite possible they might have lost their confidence and motivation. The coaching program should be open to anyone who wants to be coached, which is essential to preventive care.
Heart disease is the number one cause of death is this country for both men and women. We cannot change our age, sex, or family history, but we can all take steps to reduce our risk of heart disease by making wise nutritional choices, being moderately physically active, and if overweight or obese—achieving a healthier weight. A wellness program should allow anyone who wants to make a lifestyle change do so with the help of trained wellness coaches.

Wellness Consultants

A dedicated consultant should be assigned to each organization to help them plan campaign promotions, understand the reporting, and evaluate their program’s success. If the current campaign strategy is not working, the wellness consultants should be there to help evaluate the situation and get the right promotions in place.

Improved Reporting

Knowing whether a wellness program is truly working has been another challenge for employers. Historically, results could take 12 months or longer to measure. The wellness company you select should have behavior change metrics and extensive monthly reporting. With this feature, employers can determine a program’s effectiveness in months or even weeks, so organizations can make adjustments to get the most out of their investment. By evaluating metrics, it should be possible to determine whether the program should evolve to maximize positive results.
Now the employer can see how their programs are creating healthy employees, and therefore a healthier, happier more productive population.
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Dr. Charles Nagurka is national medical director for OptumHealth Wellness programs. OptumHealth’s personalized health advocacy and engagement programs tap a combination of capabilities that encompass public sector solutions, care solutions, behavioral solutions, specialty benefits and financial services. Serving nearly 60 million people, OptumHealth is one of the nation’s largest health and wellness businesses, and is a UnitedHealth Group company. More information about OptumHealth can be found at www.optumhealth.com.