Company Health and Wellness Programs: Worker Health Services and worker Benefits

Small and large corporations carry a significant proportion of the provision of health care for  families in this country by offering health care insurance for their employees. With the escalating  increase in health care cost many corporations are attempting to slow the increase of health care  insurance premiums by offering innovative cost control initiatives. Greater emphasis is being put on  primary prevention to keep employees healthy and secondary prevention to identify and treat health  conditions before they can become serious.

At some workplaces, employees are being encouraged to take greater responsibility for their health  related behaviors through risk rated incentive packages. Linking wellness to worker benefits of gain  sharing and co-payment cost reductions will provide new opportunities requiring efforts of  collaboration between the human resource managers and the Company Health and Wellness Program  specialists. These two sets of professionals may also work together for the ongoing evaluation of cost  effective Employee Wellness Programs.

In conjunction with the above initiatives most large corporations also have a nurse or physician on  staff to dispense on-site medical and preventive care. Some initiatives have also found it cost  effective to provide their own physical therapy programming to assist injured and infirm workers in  regaining optimal functioning. A comprehensive selection of health related worker services and benefits  would include the following:

• Free or low cost health screenings provided on site by employer clinical personnel or through outside  contractors:
Serum cholesterol
Colorectal cancer screen
Blood pressure check
Mammography
Vision and hearing testing
Diabetes
• Referral and follow-up procedures (e.g., Hypertension, Cholesterol, Cancer)
• Provision of first aid and emergency care
• Disease control and prevention initiatives
• Onsite Child and adult care services
• Financial and Pre-Retirement planning
• Ongoing learning/educational opportunities
• Coordination of employer picnics and outings
• Parent-child work visitation initiatives
• Workers compensation/rehabilitation