Incorporating Incentives

The Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010 to make sure that most people had medical insurance. With this new healthcare system came the responsibility that individuals would have to take initiatives to try to stay or get healthy. The preventative care portion included in the Affordable Car Act is a big item and very important in health care reform and very positive for the American people. Wellness in the workplace has become a very important issue to help reduce companies medical cost, and to help employees get on track to know their numbers, get healthy, and have a positive healthy mental attitude. Many employees do not understand or know how to get healthy and live a healthy lifestyle. With the rising cost of healthcare relating to

The Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, with the intent of ensuring that most people in the United States have medical insurance. With this new healthcare system came the responsibility that individuals would have to take initiatives in an effort to stay healthy or at the least, increase their level of activity and health awareness, making them more responsible for their own wellness. The preventative care portion included in the Affordable Care Act is one of the fundamental items of the law and is a particularly meaningful, very positive attribute in health care reform for the American people. Wellness in the workplace has become an essential issue to help reduce companies’ medical cost, and to help employees get on track to know their numbers, get healthy, and have a positive healthy mental attitude. Many employees do not understand or know how to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle. With the rising cost of healthcare, especially relating to people not taking care of their bodies, wellness in the workplace has become even more critical. Author Lori Breiner (2007) “believes wellness in the workplace has economic benefits for organizations, because if workers are healthy, they miss less time from work.” Breiner’s theory would suggest that better health increases productivity and profits in the workplace.

Obesity has caused our nation an abundant loss in productivity in businesses due to mental or physical issues causing an obstacle to efficiency while active in the work place. The total loss production time is at 11.7 billion dollars per year. According to Shell Oil Company, 11.2 million dollars were lost because of absenteeism related to obesity. Annual productivity loss is between 3.38 and 6.38 billion dollars. When obese, there is a major increase in disability payments and disability insurance premium costs. This produces higher fiscal costs to the federal government. Obesity alone charges our country and businesses billions and billions of dollars each year just from being absent from work or being present, yet not productive

Foremost, the healthier a society is, the more productive employees are, which boosts revenue. When an employee’s health is in question, an employer may actually lose 77 percent of productivity, making the loss greater than that of health care expenses. These numbers go up with the combination of lack of exercise, 96 percent loss, and unhealthy eating habits, 93 percent loss, said a study from Brigham Young University, according to an article in a 2012 Education Letter. The study included “those who did not believe their workplace environment would support them in becoming physically and emotionally healthier were more likely to

When a business hires an employee they are looking for a person to do a job to the best of their ability and poor health could hinder those efforts. When a person is inattentive and lackadaisical during a work day they are wasting that companies time. Employers should be encouraged to set into place requirements for exercise and healthy eating of all their employees to ensure the utmost productivity of that company. Companies with cafeterias could make sure that only or mostly heathy food is served for breakfasts or lunches. They could also have exercise classes available for employees at lunch time, if they have the space. Or they could try to arrange a discount deal for employees at a nearby gym. This way they would be encouraging employees to be healthy and also helping to keep the business

With new technological advancements and the changing of times, people have become increasingly sedentary in their daily lives (“Pounding Away”). With all of our cars and motorized vehicles, few people are forced into strenuous physical activities that would burn the calories needed for a healthy lifestyle. With the creation of robots and mechanized devices to make working more efficient and cheapen labor costs, less than 20% of jobs in the private sector now require moderate physical activity (“Obesity in America”). What had once required for you to get up and walk to the other side of the room can now be done by writing an email or picking up a phone. This decrease in activity in the workplace would be fine if it were counterbalanced by steady leisure exercise. Sadly, many people in their leisure time do not exercise. What do they do instead? The average American spends “55% of his waking hours sitting down” (“Obesity in America”), whether it’s in front of a TV or a computer. Another outcome of the modern age is the change in eating habits. Serving sizes have steadily increased and many fast food places now offer an option to super-size their meals, e.g. McDonald’s, for just a few cents

Lynn Ostrowski believes that if patients would take control over their own health by preventative measures and diet, it could cut down on the need of seeing a doctor. She says, ‘Seventy percent of chronic conditions are the direct result of people’s own life choices,’ (1). She suggests that much of the preventative-health measures would be best promoted in the workplace (3). People consume most of their daily intake of calories at work, during the workday. And for most people this is the part of the day where they are least active. Ostrowski states that workplaces have a unique position in helping create healthy employees and families, because they pay for insurance and lose productivity due to sickness or disability (3). She

Best health practices and worksite wellness program is about engaging with employees to understand what they want, taking a tactical method about looking at health holistically. According to Lacoma, (1999 -2014), these worksite wellness programs are intended to help the workers upgrade their health and maintain healthy lifestyles. This package includes exercises, variety of care and treatment for various illnesses (mental and emotional health), healthy food, on time check up reminders, outlined health checks assessments, consultations and therapy. Moreover, Engelman (2012) determined that many of the conditions impacting workers were preventable and requires increased amounts of education, screening, encouragement and benefits to help understand how these affect the quality of their lives. These shifts gained prominence during the 1990s from increased research, about the importance of prevention and the advantages it can provide employers inside the marketplace.The recent Affordable Care Act workplace wellness provisions on implementation and expansion of employer wellness programs serves a great means to offer great opportunity of improving the citizen 's health and also control health care spending. The effectiveness and benefits of such programs should be evaluated to encourage opportunities to support healthier workplaces (Kisberg, (2014).

Today, America is facing an epidemic that drains its economy and annihilates the health of its citizens, obesity. In the eyes of the average American, being overweight may seem like an issue with no effect on anything except for a rise of burger sales and an increased chance of diabetes, but this epidemic causes catastrophic events unseen by the public. Firstly, corpulence effects ⅓ of the U.S. population, leaving the other ⅔ in the category of being overweight, double the amount since the early 1970s, stated by Ross A. Hammond and Ruth Levine in “The Economic Impact of Obesity in the United States.” In addition to the effects of obesity in the everyday lives of the U.S.’ citizens, Obesity is next to if not deadlier than tobacco, which claims

In today’s modern society, technology plays a central role in the lives of most people. In the past, people enjoyed healthy, active lifestyles; however, the increasing dependence and reinforcement we receive from using technology has negatively impacted on the amount of time we spend active. (Epstein, Roemmich, Robinson, Pauluch, Winiewicz, Fuerch, & Robinson, 2008; Epstein, Roemmich, Saad, & Handley, 2004). According to behavioural economic theory, in order to successfully increase time spent exercising; time spent on the undesirable behaviour should be substituted with the more desirable behaviour. (Epstein, Saelens, & O’Brien, 1995)

Although, short-term or outcome based financial incentives may be profitable to some, they may not be an effective approach always. For example, some individuals in desire to receive a large amount of incentive to reach the specific health outcome such as weight loss, he/she might choose to starve to reach the target, followed by potential adverse effects later. On the other hand, many individuals fail to maintain healthy behaviors after attaining the health outcomes and on receiving the incentives. Furthermore, Incentives tied exclusively to health outcomes may discriminate those who are in utmost need of health improvement such as the elderly and socioeconomically backward individuals, as outcome-based incentives may unintentionally overcompensate

Another possible strategy that has gained traction in recent years is high-deductible health plans or HDHPs. The reasoning behind the creation of this type of plan is to expose people to more of the cost of their lifestyle choices. This in turn, would incentivize them to care more about their well-being and strive to live a healthier life. By implementing high deductibles, along with increasing the amount of information that is given to consumers about obesity and its effects, the idea was to turn people into “activated health care consumers”. While this type of plan would keep premiums low,

The impact that the incentives in health care, readmission in care delivery, and the role of Electronic Health Records are still being investigated. While some Americans feel that the ACA has not helped them, it has in fact, has an increase in savings by offering incentive programs.

Wellness in the workplace needs to be taken seriously by all employers, and employees. There has been evidence that making sure employees eat healthier leads to lower call out rates and more savings on health plans. In an article in Employee Benefits magazine it states that “Wellness management does not need to be complicated, or costly. A few simple steps could help to mitigate long-term problems, such as introducing early intervention activities that red flag cases identified via an absence reporting mechanism, the proactive management of musculo-skeletal conditions and stress, introducing a smoking cessation program or running regular health wellbeing days. “Workplace wellness as a concept has been used extensively in recent years by management in business and industry, health professionals, fitness experts, and others. This is a policy that should be implanted in all jobs. Wellness may not

Health and wellness in the workplace is crucial to business success. Increasingly, it is recognized that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on people’s health. When people are satisfied with their job, they are more productive and tend to be healthier. When employees feel that the environment at work is negative, they feel stressed. Stress has a large impact on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on productivity. Companies that promote healthy lifestyle habits for employees to improve their health, often take the success of the company to heart and are likely to be absent less often for health related reasons.