Essay on Mitigating Health Risks and Costs: Employer-Led Health Promotion Programs

Introduction

There have been a lot of disparities concerning access to affordable and quality health care in the United States, based on the huge medical spending (Goetzel et al., 2012). The disparities have immensely contributed to the higher risk factors and vulnerability to many diseases, especially among the working populations. As a result, employers have been compelled to adopt various health promotion programs to mitigate the workers' modifiable health risks and costs. In that context, this paper seeks to analyze ten leading and modifiable health risk factors among the working population and how they relate to the total costs of medication in the context of work. In a nutshell, the hypothesis formed in the study shows that various intervention models/programs can significantly help in mitigating the employer-employee medical costs resulting from the ten leading risks.

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Population health interventions and concepts in the study

According to the study findings, there are consistent and remarkable links between employee health risks and costs over a long period, given that the health landscape keeps changing with time. Therefore, there is a need to recognize that today is different from the day when the Hero study was conducted. In that context, the research recommends a proper amassing of more evidence and intervention programs to bring the cost-effectiveness of the worksite health promotion programs (Goetzel et al., 2012)

It is, therefore, recommended that the "Healthy Company Culture" intervention policies and programs must be implemented to reduce the individual employee health risks in the workplace. The senior management support offers structured counseling and risk-oriented training to the vulnerable lots with a view of having behavior change. The Behavior Change Theory will also be a resourceful tool in shaping transformed staff that can achieve the projected goals but using and evaluating state-of-the-art interventions. A review by the CDC and Prevention Community Guide Task Force also recommends that there must be promotions of multi-component programs to employ assessments of employee health risks. That way, it will be possible to exert a positive influence on the feedback of health education and behavior change interventions.

Methodology (Data collection, methods, variables)

Sampling and Data Collection

The study employed a replication of the original Hero Study by including the data of drug prescriptions, doubling of the sample size, and more sensitive analytical techniques (Goetzel et al., 2012). Random sampling was done by selecting 92,486 full-time employees of 18 years and above of age. 68.9% of the participants were men, with an average age of 41. The exclusion method omitted pregnant women from the study but enrolled in all categories of employees in the 40-day risk assessment exercise. The sample size was collected from seven employer organizations, with ($82,072), representing 22.4% of the annual spending by employers on the ten risk factors studied (Goetzel et al., 2012).

Dependent and Independent Variables

Independent variables are those factors used and changed in the study to determine the results of the investigation. In the study, independent variables included seven organizations, employers, employees, and the money spent in controlling the modifiable health risk factors and how they affect employer-employee health care spending. The dependent variable was the magnitude at which the top ten modifiable health risks affect employer-employee health spending, which one-fifth of the total employer was spending.

Key Findings of the Study

After analyzing 92,486 employee sample in the 2.95 years health risk assessment, various observations were made. Under Biometric, obesity risks among employees were leading at 32.2%, followed by high cholesterol at 9.9%, high blood glucose at 9.5, and high blood pressure at 7.6%. (Goetzel et al., 2012). Under the behavioral risks, poor nutrition and eating habits were leading at 64.1%, physical inactivity at 36.4%, tobacco use at 21.5%, and high alcohol consumption at 4.9%. Lastly, in the area of psychological risks, a high level of stress was leading at 17.4%, and depression risks following at 10.9 %. In comparing the study findings with the findings of the Hero study, the risk prevalence of the ten health risks was within five percentage points of each other, except on poor nutrition, obesity and cholesterol levels with wider deviation.

Relating Risks with Costs

Analysis of the behavioral health risks pointed out that tobacco-consuming employees were 16.3% more costly for employers than non-tobacco users. People with poor nutrition and eating risks were also less costly for employers than those reported with good nutrition, but differences in cholesterol risks remain insignificant (Goetzel et al., 2012). In the area of psychological health risks, employees at risk of depression were 48% more costly for employers than those without the risks, with $2,184 in higher costs. Finally, workers exhibiting health risks of stress were 8.6 % more costly than the non-risk cases.

Summary of Exhibit Tables 1 and 2 from the paper

According to data from table one of the study, it shows the average statistical data of the unadjusted and adjusted medical expenditures in 2009 dollars by risk level. Depression risks presented the highest unadjusted and adjusted differences in the medical expenditures of employees at 59.1% and 48.0%, respectively. Blood glucose risks second with 70% and 31.8% differences. Blood pressure, body weight, tobacco use, and stress follow each other in terms of both unadjustable and adjustable medical expenditures. However, it is imperative to note that the differences between cholesterol, alcohol, and nutrition risks remained below zero percent. Table 2 of the study represents graph data that show the overall difference in medical expenditures that exists between high-risk and lower-risk employees. The graph shows the comparisons between the previous Hero study and the current study and the spending variations between the two categories of employees (Goetzel et al., 2012).

Implications and management of policies

According to the study, critics have predicted that might be potential risk implications of policies regarding the consequences of the recommendations. Therefore, it is imperative to manage these policies effectively, to make them align with both the constitution and other national laws to protect the rights of the high-risk employees. Based on the findings, there are predictions that some employers may choose to avoid hiring high-risk employees since they will increase their commercial losses and profitability (Gortzel et al., 2012). Generally, these intervention policies can only be implemented through organization culture change and behavior change models to enable employees to transform their individual risks and expenditures.

Reference

Ron Z. Goetzel, Xiaofei Pei, Maryam J. Tabrizi, Rachel M. Henke, Niranjana Kowlessar, Craig F. Nelson and R. Douglas Met Ten Modifiable Health Risk Factors Are Linked To More Than One-Fifth O Employer-Employee Health Care Spending Health Affairs, 31, no.11 (2012):2474-2484 doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2011.0819