In the early 2000’s when we became aware of the fact that healthier employees have fewer workers’ comp claims, it dawned on us that if we could also try to help our member companies have healthier employees, we would have fewer claims in the first place, the claims would not be as serious, and those people would return to work even faster. We embarked on setting up a wellness company to deliver those kinds of services, not only to members of our trust, but to the members of the business community at large.
What a proper wellness program should be, in our eyes, is really twofold: it should not only be a program or plan to get your employees to be healthier, and generally that comes through diet, nutrition and exercise and knowledge, but also your wellness program should incorporate a strong component of teaching your employees how to be better shoppers of healthcare.
In the state of New Hampshire, you can pay as little as $400 and as much as $4,000 or more for an MRI. In some cases, it’s the same machine parked in a different parking lot, yet employees for the most part will simply go where they’re told to go by their doctor. They either pay through their own insurance policy or their employer will end up paying that four thousand dollars for the MRI as opposed to the $400 cost for the MRI. All those costs come back to the employer in terms of the cost of the health insurance that they’re trying to provide. A strong component of a wellness program needs to be teaching your employees to be better consumers of healthcare, while at the same time, you’re working with them to get healthier.