Phoning it in
March 27, 2009 by Bill MeltzerPosted in: Healthcare costs, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Wellness
There’s some good news on at least one healthcare cost front.
A new study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (JOEM) finds that employers can save money by having overweight employees participate in a weight-management program over the phone.
How it works: Your firm contracts with a telephonic health provider.
The service will call enrolled employees as many as five or six times per year to offer counseling. The study found that most employees lost weight. And one firm participating in the study saved an estimated $311,755 between lower premiums and reduced health claims.
September 25th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Who are these services? Can you tell us who the legit ones are???
April 2nd, 2009 at 2:06 pm
We have this attached to our Health insurance plan. There are incentives the participants can earn in forms of gift cards. The incentives are earned for participating in wellness assessments and the telephonic counseling. Our carrier is United Healthcare. UHC.com Your insurance broker should be able to direct you to the services. So far it is a win-win.
April 2nd, 2009 at 2:33 pm
I’d like to know too. We are starting a “Walk Across America” program on Monday. It would be wonderful to offer another service like this as we want to promote Wellness.
April 3rd, 2009 at 5:13 pm
We had a telephonic counseling wellness program for a year, and it proved quite disappointing. Few people participated and even fewer had any results — no one quit smoking or lost any weight. We’d like to have an effective wellness program but haven’t found the right one yet.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Well, better not run that program in Michigan. We have legislation against weight discrimination and targeting overweight people in any fashion (even if for their benefit) may be twisted around to benefit a potential future lawsuit.
Future quote in court, “I mean, they harassed me to sign up for this overweight telephone thing, and then the people kept calling me, making me feel demeaned, it was like paid harassment that my boss outsourced… My boss made me feel ‘fat’ and a second-rate employee despite my good work ethic and result — I mean, I didn’t see any of the skinny people targeted for eating disorders or anything, and Bob, he has a drinking problem and they didn’t make him get help, it’s clearly discrimination!”