AHA’s Fit-Friendly Worksite competition aims to yield healthy returns for employers, workers

Kristi Aimone is the wellness coordinator at Southcoast Health. / COURTESY SOUTHCOAST HEALTH
Kristi Aimone is the wellness coordinator at Southcoast Health. / COURTESY SOUTHCOAST HEALTH

NEW BEDFORD – American employers lose about $226 billion annually due to health care expenses and health-related losses in productivity, according to a statement from Southcoast Health, and employers face $12.7 billion in annual medical premiums for one increasingly problematic health issue – obesity. What’s an employer to do?

In 2015, Southcoast Health realized a sixfold return on investment; spending approximately $650,000 in health, wellness and fitness initiatives saved the company nearly $4 million in health care expenses, said Peter Cohenno, a spokesperson for Southcoast Health, which participated in the American Heart Association’s Fit-Friendly Worksites program.

Named a Platinum-level Fit-Friendly Worksite by the AHA for 2014 and 2015 (and a Gold-level Fit-Friendly Worksite for 2013), Southcoast Health launched its wellness program in 2006, and has expanded it since then, Kristi Aimone, Southcoast Health’s wellness coordinator, told Providence Business News. “Our goal is to really focus on the wellness and well-being of our employees; we try to touch on different dimensions – emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual and physical. That’s been the basis of our wellness program from [the very beginning].” Southcoast Health tries to offer new health and wellness programs each year; current offerings include Zumba, yoga, mindfulness, farmers markets and healthy food options in the cafeterias, she said.

A clear majority – some 70 percent – of Southcoast Health’s 7,400 employees participate in the Virgin Pulse program, which is designed to help employees improve their habits and behaviors pertaining to exercise, sleep, nutrition and stress. The Virgin Pulse activity tracker, which every participating Southcoast Health employee receives for free, records the individual’s daily steps, miles and calories. Raffles, offering rewards such as $100 and $500 Amazon gift cards, serve as incentives; the more points a participant earns by achieving additional goals or objectives, the greater the chance of winning a raffle, said Aimone. Southcoast Health-insured employees who participate in Virgin Pulse save $500 on their next year’s health insurance premiums, she said.

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In the most recent round of awards to companies in southern New England, Acushnet Company in Fairhaven, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and CVS Health were the other Platinum-level (the highest level) Fit-Friendly Worksites, said Michelle Karn, communications director for AHA – Southern New England. Gold-level award recipients in southern New England were Atlantis Charter School and BankFive – both in Fall River; Bay Coast Bank in Swansea; Beacon Mutual Insurance Company in Warwick; Celldex Therapeutics in Needham; Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole; Obstetrical Associates Inc., in Fall River; Rhode Island Parent Information Network in Cranston; Rhode Island Primary Care Physicians Corporation in Cranston; South County Hospital in South Kingstown; and United Healthcare in Warwick. Reflecting the prior year’s accomplishments, these awards are valid for only one year. The AHA does not conduct any onsite assessments or evaluations but relies on the submitted applications for awards’ determination. Companies were recognized with the awards at the Providence Heart Walk last month.

Ninety-three percent of BCBSRI’s 900 employees participated in our wellness program in 2015, reported Kyrie Perry, a spokesperson for the organization. The core program requires employees make annual visits to their primary care provider and dentist and complete an online health assessment. Employees and their spouses or domestic partners must make those visits to avoid a $50 monthly surcharge on their health insurance premiums in the following year, she said. Additionally, individuals must disclose – at hiring and during the open enrollment health insurance periods – if they use tobacco; those who do are assessed a $50 monthly smoking surcharge.

“It’s very difficult to quantify the return on investment for employees who participate in wellness programs and the impact the [wellness programs] have on health care costs … however, for 2016, we are measuring program satisfaction and participation,” Perry wrote in an email to Providence Business News.

Fit-Friendly Gold-level award generally requires an entity to implement various activities and programs – such as onsite walking paths, healthy food choices in cafeterias and vending machines, annual employee health risk assessments and online tracking tools. The Platinum recognition, however, must demonstrate an employer’s positive outcomes of greater than 10 percent, generally, in any of these categories: employee behavior change, cost savings or return on investment. The applications for the Gold- and Platinum-levels both require applicants to offer programs addressing smoking cessation, physical activity, nutrition and a culture of wellness.

Thanks to the AHA’s new Workplace Health Solutions portal, Karn said, “We’re taking it one step further; we’re looking at … continuous improvement and how we can help organizations assess their goal-setting and the health of their employees.”

For more information on the new portal, visit heart.org/workplacehealth; for more information on the Fit-Friendly Worksite competition application, visit ffc.heart.org.

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