How to Reduce Your Company’s Health Insurance Costs and Boost Productivity

We can watch politicians bicker about the reasons for high health insurance costs until the cows come home. While they blame each other, I know a significant part of the blame lies somewhere else.

75% of healthcare costs reimbursed by insurance companies are related to chronic conditions like obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.  More often than not, these conditions are preventable, treatable and reversible.

In a nutshell, we’re paying to treat conditions that we’ve created ourselves.

The path we’re on is simply unsustainable. Economically, our businesses and our employees can’t afford it. From a quality of life standpoint, we can’t keep doing this to ourselves.

Aside from the health insurance costs, these chronic conditions are productivity killers. Think about the unnecessary sick days and wasted man hours. Think about the lack of energy and focus and how this affects job performance. Think about instances of presenteeism – the act of attending work while sick. Employees may be physically present at work, but they’re mentally checked out due to the chronic illness they’re battling and the medication they’re taking to treat the illness.

Think about how much money we’re leaving on the table at a time when every cent counts.

As an employer, you probably feel like your hands are tied. The cost of health insurance is what the insurance company tells you it is. We all just have to deal with it, right? Not necessarily.

Here’s a little nugget that you probably weren’t aware of. Health insurance companies are willing to reduce premiums for companies that take steps to fight back against chronic conditions by implementing employee wellness programs.

We don’t have to wait for gridlock in Washington to magically vanish. We just have to help our employees live healthier lifestyles.

One problem – you can’t just call your health insurance provider, say that you’re buying salads from the fast food joint instead of burgers and fries, and expect them to lower your premiums. There needs to be accountability.

Wellness at Work, part of the Proodian Healthcare family of companies, is a clinically-based educational program that covers everything from stress management and nutrition to ergonomics and heart disease. Through group seminars and one-on-one analysis with your employees, we can help your employees become healthier and live longer. This creates a more productive workforce for your company.

We also provide you with the accountability you need to go to your health insurance provider and request lower premiums. Lower health insurance costs and healthier, more productive employees who are “present” both physically and mentally. That sounds like a win-win-win.

As a non-profit, Wellness at Work is free for participating companies. That’s another win.

This all comes back to our core messages for 2013 – make this the year of the family, and take your health back. Many of us spend more time with our work family than we do with our home family. Wellness At Work programs make your work family healthier, so help your employees take back their health!

After all, it’s not just about money. It’s the right thing to do.

Have a question about Wellness At Work? Think your company might want to lower its health insurance premiums and make its employees more productive? Let us know!

Dr. James Prood­ian is an accomplished chiropractic physician and health educator who founded Proodian Healthcare Family of Companies to help people feel better, function better, and live longer. His expertise for the past two decades has been in physical rehabilitation, and he has successfully established himself as a spinal specialist. In his practice, he advocates the science of functional medicine, which takes an integrative approach to treating patients by addressing their physical, nutritional, and psychological needs. Alarmed by the escalation of complex, chronic illness in our country, Dr. Proodian has been speaking to companies and organizations through his “Wellness at Work” program since 1994, motivating thousands of people to make positive lifestyle choices and lead healthier, more productive lives. He can be heard weekly on his radio program, “Proodian Healthcare By Design,” on Tandem Radio.