Companies offer wellness opportunities at work

St. John’s Health System, one of Springfield’s largest employers, has added more incentives to the wellness program that it offers to employees.

“Our health care costs are approaching $50 million per year. We are seeing trends, like most employers, of health care costs going up,” said Jim Brookhart, vice president of human resources at St. John’s. “We have the ability through our medical management program at St. John’s to really get an in-depth analysis of where our dollars are going, not by individuals, but by groups and by disease entities. So we can see, for instance, that we are seeing (an) increase in pharmacy costs and utilization, ER utilization, and a significant increase in costs related to diabetes.” He added that having that information enables St. John’s to tailor its wellness program offerings.

“We have had for some time a basic contribution that each co-worker pays per pay period for health coverage, but then we give them significant discounts if they exercise and don’t use tobacco. We increased those discounts this year so that if someone doesn’t exercise regularly but they don’t use tobacco they get a 15 percent discount off of their monthly premium. If they exercise regularly and don’t use tobacco they get a 27 percent discount,” he said.

St. John’s also offers screenings for its insured employees, and employees who receive them can receive $5 gift cards as an incentive.

“They determine blood pressure, habits like seatbelt use, alcohol use, family history. It gives you an individual appraisal of what your health risks are. The cornerstone of someone taking control of their health and well-being is understanding what their risks are, whether they are from heredity or lifestyle,” Brookhart said.

Such screenings are a large part of City Utilities’ wellness artillery. Sally Brackett, an occupational nurse with CU’s wellness program, said, “It’s just the standard now to try and keep health care costs down. With anything you can invest in your employees to keep them well, you’re going to see a return on that investment in terms of fewer sick days, lower insurance claims, but at the same time it’s really hard to put dollars and cents to that because of the heart attacks that don’t happen (and) the sugar diabetes that you catch early on,” she said.

CU also provides employee health assessments twice a year, in March and September, Brackett said.

“Not only have they made people more aware of things like cholesterol levels, but we have found early sugar diabetes in individuals. We have caught an early case of prostate cancer, early cases of colon cancer,” she said.

CU’s wellness efforts also include the Fitness Power exercise incentive program and wellness luncheons. The company also offers annual reimbursements for memberships to approved fitness clubs and weight management programs.

Another local company, Great Southern Bank, has made it easier for employees to get the exercise they need by including a workout facility in the Great Southern Operations Center at 218 S. Glenstone.

Matthew Snyder, vice president and director of human resources at Great Southern, said the workout facility is accessible to all bank employees 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Eventually, he hopes, it will be part of a larger corporate wellness program at Great Southern.

“The primary purpose for (the workout area) is that it’s an amenity. I think in the corporate world we demand a lot of our employees. They are asked to work long hours, they take on a lot of responsibility. It’s a technical world and a critical world,” Snyder said. “In the banking business, we have so many regulations and constant changes, it’s stressful, and we realize that folks have a lot of stress outside of work as well. This was something we could do to be a little more accommodating. It makes it a little bit easier for them to come in early or go over on their lunch break to work off some stress in the fitness center.”

While Snyder said he could not pinpoint the exact cost of the facility as it was part of a $2 million renovation of the building, he said that Great Southern went to great expense to make the facility safe and comfortable.

The restrooms in the area are equipped with shower and changing facilities. For employee safety, a panic button was installed in the room, as well as security cameras and monitors so that exercisers may see who is in the parking lot before they leave.

Hannah Bollenbach, staffing relationship manager with Great Southern human resources, appreciates the gesture.

“I thought it was an extraordinary enhancement to our package of employee benefits,” she said. “It’s something that I look forward to when I get off of work. I don’t have to drive anywhere because it is here on-site. Like everybody else, I am trying to get back in the swing of things with the new year. I try to use it at least two or three times per week, more if time allows.”

St. John’s also has initiated incentives for using the system’s Nurse on Call program to cut down on unnecessary visits to the emergency room.

“Our information shows that a lot of those ER visits could have been handled by going to a primary care physician or to a convenient care center, which is less costly to the plan. Plus if you are going in with a minor illness, like an earache or (upset stomach) you are going to be waiting for a long time. Even if patients are referred to the ER, we offer a $25 incentive for using the Nurse on Call,” Brookhart said.

While St. John’s employees can earn incentives for using wellness program options, the health system’s long-term goal is to cut down on future health coverage cost increases.

“We budgeted for an increase of $7 million in health care costs this year. If we are 2 percent below that cost, we will not take the normal premium deduction in December of 2005. If we come in 5 percent below, we won’t take a deduction for the last two pay periods,” Brookhart said.

He noted that St. John’s isn’t trying to discourage employees from seeking medical care when it’s needed.

“But if you use appropriate levels of care, if you take responsibility for your own care, those things will help us manage our costs and possibly help us be below where we budgeted, and we’ll share those savings with the whole group,” he said.

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