The health of workers in the United States is declining, and employers spend about $670 in healthcare costs per worker every year, according to Thomson Reuters’ newly released U.S. Workforce Wellness Index.
The research company’s U.S. Workforce Wellness Index uses six risk factors – Body Mass Index, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose level and tobacco and alcohol use – to examine employee wellness.
According to the study, in 2009 about 14 percent of incremental direct healthcare costs were attributable to the six risk factors. Of the approximately $670 in healthcare costs paid for every worker, $400 was linked to high BMI and $150 to elevated blood glucose. Blood pressure, cholesterol and alcohol use had nearly no impact on healthcare costs, while tobacco use accounted for just under $100.
The Thomson Reuters U.S. Workforce Wellness Index measures the healthcare cost impact of the six risk factors in populations of those working in the United States who have employer-sponsored health insurance. The index is based on Thomson Reuters’ MarketScan database of claims paid for medical and prescription drugs, health risk assessment database and health and productivity management database, as well as national data from the Centers for Disease Control’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Researchers looked at data from 2005 to 2009 and found that the health of workers in the United States declined by 2 percent. While that decline seems small, it should give employers pause, said Raymond Fabius, MD, Thomson Reuters’ chief medical officer and co-author of “Population Health: Creating a Culture of Wellness.”
“These unhealthy behaviors are leading to $670 of healthcare expenditure annually and that $670 is just based on medical costs and pharmacy costs,” said Fabius. “So it doesn’t include the costs that are related to absenteeism, presenteeism and disability.”
Thomson Reuters created a companion index, the MarketScan Workforce Wellness Index, which shows that the health of workers improved from 2005 to 2009. The differences between the two indices may be explained by the data set in the Marketscan Workforce Index. It's based on databases of self-selected companies that track behavioral risks in their workforces and have programs in place to encourage wellness and health.
[See related story: Study: Employee wellness programs cut healthcare costs]
That the health of workers in the MarketScan Workforce Wellness Index is better than the health of the workers in the U.S. Workforce Wellness Index, Fabius said, demonstrates that employers with wellness programs are reducing healthcare costs by improving the health of their employees.
“I think there’s a lot of steps in that journey (creating a healthy workforce) but what this particular index has demonstrated is that those employers who have actually taken the small, early but significant steps of engaging in health risk appraisals with biometric screenings and have provided follow up services for those people that have been identified to have risks with health coaches and those that have been identified to have chronic conditions to be followed up with care managers is a very good start,” Fabius said.
He recommends implementing four basic resources – a health risk appraisal, biometric screening, health coaches and care managers – to begin fostering a culture of health in the workplace.
For those with limited budgets, he suggests focusing health and wellness programs on healthy eating and smoking cessation.