Hello, Can you help me with a 1000 word essay. This is a research paper on wellness. Please use APA format.. plagiarism free and proofread. I will update the following documents. Please note .. Please read MBA 532 Incenting wellness which gives all information.
CF Vol 13 (2) Final without cover.pdf CF Vol. 13 (2), 2015 � 210 � Employee Wellness Programs: Savings for Organizations and Employees Kelsey Kohler, Saint Francis University Jonna Contacos-Sawyer, Saint Francis University Brennan Thomas, Saint Francis University EXECUTIVE SUMMARY An employee wellness program may be implemented into a companys strategic plan by the human resource department to support the health and well being of the employees, while also offering incentives and healthcare cost savings. With ever- changing healthcare laws and increasing costs, companies are looking for a solution to benefit all. Organizations are facing the effects of chronic diseases among their work force, which in turn may increase their healthcare costs in order to medicate. By strategically developing, implementing and communicating a well-rounded wellness program, organizations can achieve a higher morale of their employees and decrease their overall healthcare costs. Keywords: Wellness, Strategic plan, Healthcare, Morale, Organizations INTRODUCTION The healthcare benefit is a type of insurance that protects employees from a large amount of medical expenses due to procedural, preventive, or emergency medical treatments. Employee wellness programs play an important role in the offering of healthcare benefits, as they provide guidance, education and incentives for employees to become healthier, tackle any possible chronic disease and decrease the potential of high medical costs. Companies can benefit from the employee wellness programs by improving the well being of their overall workforce and to cut costs on the high healthcare bills. THE HISTORY OF HEALTHCARE IN THE UNITED STATES Employee healthcare benefits have been in existence for decades as a way to attract and retain employees. During World War II, job shortages grew because of a wage freeze from the National War Labor Board (Employee Benefits Research Institute, 2002). At this time, employers realized that unions supported employee-based health insurance and that there would not be a wage control on it. They offered these benefits since they were not subject to income or Social Security tax (Employee Benefits Research Institute, 2002). Over the years, healthcare benefits evolved from simple laws to the more complicated and complex laws, for example the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and other related laws, to the creation of the Affordable Care Act of 2010. In the United States (U.S.), strict laws govern the healthcare benefits that are offered to employees in companies of all types and sizes. Chronic Diseases and Health Intervention HIPAA and the Affordable Care Act provide guidance for organizations that are interested in offering employee wellness programs. The organization must abide by the laws when implementing the programs that may help employees who are fighting with chronic, physical, or mental diseases in their every day life. In order to maintain a healthy work and personal lifestyle, organizations can implement employee wellness programs that offer the employees the resources that they need to tackle these diseases. According to the Office of Personnel Management (2015), the common chronic diseases affecting our U.S. workforce today include; poor diet and nutrition, excess weight gain, lack of physical activity, back pain, high CF Vol. 13 (2), 2015 � 211 � cholesterol, mental health issues (high levels of stress), hypertension, smoking addiction and substance abuse. Organizations can focus on each area to provide education and testing, activities and classes, counseling, brochures, newsletters and many other ways in order to inform employees of these potential risks. EMPLOYEE WELLNESS PROGRAM OVERVIEW In order to assist employees in tackling these chronic diseases or when striving to become a healthier individual, organizations are starting to implement employee wellness programs. Employee wellness programs are employer sponsored programs, normally organized by the human resource department, to support employees as they adopt new behaviors to improve their health, quality of life and enhance personal effectiveness (Baicker, Cutler, & Song, 2010; Zula, 2014). In order to analyze the cost savings, a survey was conducted by the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations and found that 41.7% of employers believed that the cost of health care is the most serious aspect affecting their bottom line (Kumar, McCalla, & Lybeck, 2014). Many companies can lower the costs with the development of plans to control employees behaviors. According to Kumar et al. (2014), these controlled behaviors could be factors that eliminate death by heart disease, cancer and strokes based off of poor lifestyle decisions, lack of physical activity and alcohol consumption. Because of these health conditions, health care costs are continuing to skyrocket. For example, obesity and depression are two major diseases affecting the U.S. workforce. According to Kumar et al. (2014), obesity costs employers over $45 billion annually, leading to very high medical costs. While depression may only affect approximately 4% of the workforce, it can cost up to $83 billion per year for organizations and can affect absenteeism, obesity and other health issues (Kumar et al., 2014). To address these issues, employee wellness programs can show employees a healthier lifestyle and help control health insurance costs through the use of employee incentives and benefit discounts. FINDINGS: A CASE STUDY ON SAINT FRANCIS UNIVERSITYS WELLNESS PROGRAM In order to relate the above material to a real life example, I studied the employee wellness program at Saint Francis University in Loretto, PA and also interviewed the coordinator of the program. The wellness program at Saint Francis University (SFU), WebMD Rewards, is designed to offer incentives and points to make wellness a top priority at the university. This program helps employees improve and manage their health, no matter what their goals are, and provides extrinsic and intrinsic rewards for the employees as well as the organization. Employees who take advantage of the Highmark insurance are offered the following; a complete wellness program online that will use the employees Highmark ID and password to manage insurance benefits, a complete biometric screening, a complete preventive exam and a complete set of programs to meet the employees health, wellness and personal goals (Health and Wellness Program, 2015). If employees participate in the WebMD Rewards program, they have the opportunity of earning up to a maximum of $200, with an additional earning of points based on the number of programs the individual participates in. Employees may choose from many different program categories based on their goals/nutritional needs. The different program options are available to meet all health and wellness goals for each individual. Cost Savings for the Employee and the Organization With the implementation of the wellness program at SFU, it has been shown that employees do save money from participating in the program. SFU is part of a health insurance consortium and, out of eight schools, the university has had the lowest increase in health insurance rates over the past six years (M. Krimmel, personal communication, March 10, 2015). This shows that if employees continue to use the program, and the program gets a higher participation rate, health care costs in turn will be controlled at the university. An Employee Wellness Program Survey A survey, approved by the university Institutional Review Board, was distributed to all SFU employees (faculty, staff, clerical, etc.) to gather impressions and reactions on the wellness program offered at SFU. Employee identities were kept completely confidential and all ten questions were optional. According to my findings, it shows that employees are most interested in topics based on diet, nutrition and exercise, with weight management, womens health and a work/life balance to CF Vol. 13 (2), 2015 � 212 � follow. The majority of the survey participants do participate in the universitys wellness program at 57.61%, while 42.39% of the respondents do not. Employees would most likely attend health screenings, with single session educational seminars and self-directed activities to follow. Participants would rather participate in wellness activities during their lunch breaks or after work. The incentives that increase the likelihood that the participants would be active in the wellness program are the financial rewards, with extra days/hours off next. The communication channel that best fit employees is email. Employees may not participate in the wellness program based on lack of time or an inconvenient time or location of the program. When surveyed, 56.16% of the employees felt as if they were not saving money due to the universities wellness program because of less doctors visits, lower insurance premiums, etc. Finally, out of the participants, 58.82% of the employees felt as if they saved $1-$50 per month when participating in the wellness program, with 20.59% of the employees seeing savings between $101 and $200. This survey reached a majority of women and in the age group of 40-49. RECOMMENDATION Based on my findings, it shows that the majority of the employees cannot find the time to participate in the wellness program at work. The majority of employees would like to better their health and wellness and see lunchtime as a good fit for the program. With the use of the program and points system, employees are noticing a savings of around $50 per month. Since employees are noticing a savings while participating in the program, it is important for SFU to encourage others to participate when they have time. With an increased participation rate, SFUs employees will notice a decrease in their overall medical expenses, as are other employees who are currently participating. On the other hand, SFU is seeing cost savings with the employees who are participating. The challenge the university now faces is to encourage a larger amount of employees to catch onto the program. With the use of better timing for programs, and an increase of employee participation, the employees and university will benefit from the overall cost savings. CONCLUSION Employee wellness programs are implemented into organizations in order to protect employees from a large amount of medical expenses due to procedural, preventive, or emergency medical treatments. Employees are provided with many programs and educational tips to learn about chronic diseases, in order to take charge of them before they become an issue. Organizations are implementing these systems and spending a lot of money to ensure the health and wellness of their employees. It is shown that the employees who do participate in these programs are seeing cash savings monthly. With a higher employee