Part of the "What I Learned Reading CDHC Solutions" series: Jim Grenier of Intuit, Inc. has some great
observations in our latest issue on how employers can control health care cost. It all begins at the…beginning. Assessment, coaching and screening are needed to find a starting point and can be used as a reference point down the road. Employees need to know how healthy they are and what they need to do if their health needs to improve. On the same token, employee health plans are more effective in both cost and the overall health of the employee if an employee's progress can be measured and monitored. A web-oriented health plan is a must in this day and age. By putting the health plan on the web for employees, employers and the health plan providers to access, it puts all the information in one place that everyone involved has access to. This creates what Grenier(as well as others) calls a "Culture of Wellness". In the end, the more employee engagement there is, the higher a company's return on ROI.
I agree with Grenier's assessment 100%. Providing employees health care benefits is no longer about just paying for or giving them discounts on their health insurance. Employee, employer and health care provider must come together to provide not only health care for when something goes wrong, but to improve overall quality of life. Now, let's be honest, employers won't do this out of the kindness of their hearts, even if they are genuinely interested in their employees' well-being. The bottom line is their concern, and the bottom line is healthy employees cost less to cover, are more productive and miss less work due to illness or poor health. On the flip side, health care providers want to pay out less per employee, so they want healthy employees too. This is not to say that employers and health care providers are cold and calculating by being motivated by profit. Just the opposite, it is fortuitous that employers and providers have a vested interest in seeing employees healthy.