Do Workplace Health Promotion (Wellness) Programs Work? Goetzel, Ron Z.; Henke, Rachel Mosher; Tabrizi, Maryam ...
Journal of occupational and environmental medicine,
2014-September, Letnik:
56, Številka:
9
Journal Article
Recenzirano
OBJECTIVE:To respond to the question, “Do workplace health promotion programs work?”
METHODS:A compilation of the evidence on workplace programsʼ effectiveness coupled with recommendations for ...critical review of outcome studies. Also, reviewed are recent studies questioning the value of workplace programs.
RESULTS:Evidence accumulated over the past three decades shows that well-designed and well-executed programs that are founded on evidence-based principles can achieve positive health and financial outcomes.
CONCLUSIONS:Employers seeking a program that “works” are urged to consider their goals and whether they have an organizational culture that can facilitate success. Employers who choose to adopt a health promotion program should use best and promising practices to maximize the likelihood of achieving positive results.
To use the CMS 5% data sample to explore the impact of Alzheimer disease and other dementias (ADOD) on individual and population costs of certain potentially modifiable comorbid conditions, in order ...to assist in the design of population health management (PHM) programs for individuals with ADOD.
A cross-sectional retrospective analysis was performed on parts A and B claims data of 1,056,741 Medicare beneficiaries 65 years and older with service dates in 2010.
The primary analysis compared the prevalence and costs of 15 comorbid conditions among those with and without ADOD in the entire sample of 1,056,741; in addition, a subset of beneficiaries without ADOD were matched by age, sex, and race on a 1:1 basis to beneficiaries with ADOD. Prevalence and cost ratios were calculated to examine the impact of potentially modifiable study comorbid conditions in both populations.
The prevalence of ADOD in the entire sample was 9.4%, and their costs represented 22.8% of the total. In the matched sample, all 15 comorbid conditions chosen for the study were more prevalent and showed higher mean individual costs in beneficiaries with ADOD compared with those without. The ADOD population also had higher costs and prevalence than the non-ADOD population when single comorbid conditions were examined separately. Study conditions with the highest individual cost ratios were urinary tract infections (UTIs), diabetes with complications, and fractures. Study conditions with the highest population cost ratios were fractures, UTIs, and diabetes without complications.
Prevalence and costs of all study comorbidities were higher in beneficiaries with ADOD compared with those without. Individual cost ratios and population cost ratios may be useful for PHM programs trying to cost-effectively manage individuals with ADOD and comorbid chronic conditions.
Treatment of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) demands a great deal of time and technology, which physicians and healthcare systems tend to have in short supply. COPD is the ...fourth leading cause of death in the US and the disease is severely under-diagnosed. Many physicians report being too rushed to provide optimal care to patients with COPD, and many gaps exist in patient care and physician knowledge.
This article examines the methods used by a disease management organization to provide value to patients with COPD, physicians, and payers through innovative information technology (IT) applications and telephonic nurse coaching. The organization encourages patient self-care through regular phone calls from a nurse coach, interactive web and telephone health status reporting, educational materials, and other means. Many patients with COPD need help understanding concepts that may seem obvious to healthcare professionals. By using motivational interviewing techniques, nurse coaches provide emotional support and information on how to monitor and track symptoms in an effort to improve clinical outcomes.
The disease management organization works with the physician to support the physician plan of care, while also reinforcing evidence-based medicine and best-practice guidelines. The organization partners with physicians, offering data useful to medical practice without disrupting delivery of care. The disease management organization can assist payers in gaining a population perspective via data mining and predictive modeling. There is a growing body of evidence that disease management organizations can improve patient outcomes in individuals with chronic conditions such as COPD.
The troubled economy and a new administration in Washington have reinvigorated the debate over the merits of disease management programs and the savings they bring to healthcare. At the forefront of ...the discussion are physicians who are discovering disease management's innovative approach to treating the chronically ill. Across the country, physicians are responding to evidence-based programs designed to improve patient outcomes that, at the same time, assist them in reaching pay-for-performance goals. New research shows that when disease management professionals provide physicians with credible information, course corrections are made more than 85% of the time.
The cost of treating chronic diseases in the US is expected to get much higher. This article discusses how disease management can help increase patients' options and help them become more ...knowledgeable participants in their own care. As Washington wrestles with the complexity of health care reform, it's time leaders take a hard look at the biggest driver of cost to the system: chronic disease. While true reform may take years, benefits administrators can take some easy steps now to lower health care costs and improve productivity and retention rates for their organizations. By making reasonable improvements in preventing and managing chronic disease, people can actually avoid 40.2 million chronic condition cases in 2023. The nation's eyes are on Washington's efforts to reform the health care system. In February, President Barack Obama signaled his support by offering a multibillion dollar solution for change, which includes funding for wellness and prevention programs to fight preventable diseases and conditions with evidence-based strategies.
Many employers are instituting health improvement programs in an effort to reduce medical costs and improve employee health, morale and retention rates. This article examines the different types of ...health improvement programs available. It provides guidelines to assist an employer in strategically developing or selecting a cost-effective program or set of programs and reviews methods to effectively implement programs and gain employee involvement. The many different terms and definitions used for health improvement programs, as defined earlier, can lead to confusion. These programs can be categorized into five distinct buckets: 1. wellness/prevention programs, 2. population health improvement, 3. population-based disease management, 4. high-risk disease management, and 5. case management. To develop an optimal health improvement strategy, an employer needs to understand its goals and constraints, define the characteristics of its beneficiaries and decide on a program model. Potential goals can include increasing productivity, reducing absenteeism, enhancing health quality, achieving a high ROI, reducing health care costs (or cost trends) and increasing employee satisfaction and retention.
