Company Wellness : What Health Vendors Are Not Telling You.

The businesses with the most cost-efficient health care plans are the ones that streamline the services staff receive for both their physical and psychological health.

As a long-term goal, having your general health plan, employee assistance program (EAP) and wellness program communicating regularly with one another about employees’ treatments is the single best way to reduce redundant or contradictory treatments, eliminate unnecessary claims and enhance the quality of the plans for which you pay.

Let’s look at the relationship between your health promotion program and your EAP to illustrate the importance of attacking health costs cross a wide front.

You can begin a wellness program with a health risk assessment and then, if appropriate, roll out a use of tobacco cessation program or a weight reduction program.

But ultimately you want to be certain that your wellness vendor works and your employee assistance program vendor.

Here’s why –  It’s very common for an staff member to contact the employee assistance program because the individuals feels depressed about his or her weight. What you want is for the employee assistance program provider to treat the employee’s depression and behavioral issues, plus you want the employee assistance program to refer the staff member to the wellness program to deal with the root cause of the problem – obesity.

The same thing goes with the relationship your health promotion program and your workers’ comp provider, STD and LTD providers, rehab people , and/or illness managers. You want all them talking to – and sharing data with – each other. When they’re not, it’s costing you money.

In general, the businesss who achieve the greatest cost savings through their wellness programs are the ones who overlap wellness with behavioral and occupational health issues.