Workers at Akron General and Summa health systems are finding it pays to stop smoking, maintain a healthy weight and lower their cholesterol and blood pressure.
The Akron hospital systems are taking aggressive steps to curb escalating health-care costs by keeping their own workers healthy and out of the hospital.
Akron General and Summa are among a growing number of employers nationwide that provide financial incentives to workers who meet healthy goals.
“We really need to challenge ourselves and call upon ourselves to be role models,” said Vincent J. McCorkle, Akron General’s president and chief executive officer.
Starting Jan. 1, Akron General is offering its 3,800 employees who are eligible for benefits a discount of as much as $240 annually off their share of the health insurance premium if they and their spouses meet health targets.
Employees get a discount just for taking tests to measure body-mass index (BMI), blood pressure, tobacco and nicotine use, cholesterol and blood-sugar levels, regardless of the results, McCorkle said. But those who meet targets set by Akron General in at least three of the five categories earn the full discount.
The initiative is part of an ongoing employee wellness strategy, which also includes an on-site fitness center, discounts to join Akron General’s medically based fitness centers and access to a wellness coach.
Summa is launching a similar program called Wellness Works that offers the 7,200 employees within its fully owned entities a discount of as much as $20 per pay — or $520 per year — on their share of the health insurance premium. Employees get partial discounts for taking the tests, even if targets aren't met.
The goal is to reduce anticipated health-care costs by at least $1.5 million within five years by improving workers’ health and avoiding costly medical problems, said Kyle Klawitter, Summa’s system vice president of human resources. The health system spends about $60 million annually on benefits.
So far, about 74 percent of employees are participating, Klawitter said.
“People are talking about their health,” she said. “Ultimately, it will result in lower costs.”
When Summa changed its policy this year to prohibit employees from even having the scent of smoke on them during their work shift, Vice President of Revenue Cycle Kevin Theiss decided it was finally time to kick the habit after 20-plus years.
Now, along with feeling better, he’s also earning a discount off his share of his health insurance premium next year because he’s a non-smoker.
“It was the right time with the right motivation,” Theiss said. “I don’t know that I would have done it had we not changed the policy.”
Lowering health costs
Nationwide, an estimated 14 percent of employers are rewarding healthy lifestyle activities, according to a report by benefits consultant Towers Watson and the National Business Group of Health. About 6 percent are penalizing smokers.
Companies are looking for answers as medical costs continue to strain their financial health. The average annual premium for family health coverage reached $15,073 this year, up 9 percent from the previous year, according to nonprofits Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust.
Federal rules permit employers to tie as much as 20 percent of the total health-care premium cost to incentive programs, said Jim Pshock, founder and president of Bravo Wellness LLC. The Avon-based company helps run wellness incentive programs for about 195 employers nationwide.
Employers who set goals for BMI, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and tobacco use and then reward top performers with a decrease of at least $40 or $50 off their monthly share of the premium are seeing the best results, Pshock said. In those cases, companies are saving an average of $400 per employee per year on health-care costs.
“We call it cost-shifting with a purpose,” Pshock said. “… The real goal is to use the financial incentives to motivate people to take responsibility for their health.”
Akron General and Summa are contracting with Bravo Wellness to coordinate their wellness incentive programs.
Workers’ test results are sent directly to Bravo Wellness, which then provides the employers with a total score for each worker, not actual results, Pshock said. To ensure privacy, only the employee receives individual results in each category.
Group criticizes incentives
Still, critics say such programs are unfair to workers.
“Calling it a discount is phony,” said Lewis Maltby, president of the Workrights Institute, a national nonprofit advocacy group on workers' issues. “It's a penalty. Two workers are doing the same job and one is getting paid less because he doesn't go to the gym often enough. That's a penalty for not going to the gym.”
Programs that force smokers or overweight people to pay more for health insurance open the door for employers to cut wages for other reasons, he said.
“Just because you're fat doesn't mean you did something wrong,” he said. “Some people are fat because they go to lunch at McDonald's every day. Some people are fat because that's the way God made them. It's not fair to penalize the people who are fat or who have high blood pressure or high cholesterol when it's not their fault.”
Under federal rules, employees must be given a chance to contest results and develop alternative goals if a doctor agrees the company targets are medically unreasonable for them, Pshock said.
Akron General is investing about $600,000 on its employee wellness program “to heighten awareness and drive participation,” said Don Corpora, senior vice president for Human Resources. The health system spends an estimated $30 million annually on health benefits for its employees and dependents.
Likewise, Summa is making a “significant six-figure investment” in its wellness initiative, a spokesman said.
Summa also is enrolling all covered employees into its “accountable care organization,” or ACO, if their primary-care physician participates.
An ACO brings together primary-care doctors, specialists, hospitals and other providers, who share responsibility for coordinating patient care. The partners then share in any savings if quality and cost goals are achieved.
“We're trying to redesign care,” said Dr. Michael Hillman, Summa's system vice president for Medical Affairs and Quality.
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or chpowell@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow Powell on Twitter at twitter.com/abjcherylpowell.
