BEN R. LEEDLE, JR.

Ben Leedle

When I finished my graduate work in exercise physiology more than two decades ago, corporate wellness initiatives rarely went beyond on-site workout facilities or discounted gym memberships for employees. Thankfully, though, wellness is taking on a much broader meaning these days, especially among employers struggling to keep employees and profits healthy.

Instead of just dangling a carrot and hoping people will take care of themselves, employers large and small are now throwing in the stick.

Increasingly, employers are asking employees to either pay more attention to their health or pay more of their own money on health insurance.

With 60 percent of health insurance in America being paid for in whole or part by employers, it doesn’t take an expert in trickle down economics to figure out the impact this kind of trend has on consumers. Consumers who, for the most part, are more consumed with how to get it all done in a day than they are with their long-term health.

Yet, when you consider the causes of death today – heart disease, lung disease, cancer – it’s estimated that 80 percent of deaths ultimately can be attributed to lifestyle and behavior. That means to address the primary causes of death in modern society as well as their associated costs, we have to address the risk of chronic diseases. And if we want to address the risk of chronic diseases, we have to change people’s behaviors. That’s a lot easier said than done.

Don’t smoke. Eat better. Exercise. Those words haven’t changed people’s behaviors any more than modern medicine has reduced the cost of care. In fact, surveys show that an alarming 33 percent of Americans think their health is “good or excellent” even though they have three or more significant clinical risk factors working against them.

So the real question is, how do you help people who don’t even know they need help?

We have to build awareness. We have to educate. We have to provide people the support and the tools they need … when they need them … to live healthier. We have to create an environment that supports and enables better decision making about our health. We have to create a culture of health and prevention in our country akin to the green movement that is sweeping the globe and causing changes in our built environments, changes that are helping individuals and entire corporations positively alter their behaviors toward such things as energy consumption, recycling and emissions.

Similar to the green movement, we have to recognize, as a society, that reducing healthcare costs is a shared responsibility and that improving our health and well-being is vital to our economic health.

It requires accountability at every level, from individuals and corporations to non-profits and nations. It requires awareness, incentives, public policies and systems to keep the healthy well, mitigate or eliminate controllable risk factors and optimize care for those who do have a chronic illness.

Some companies are beginning to create just such a culture. They’re looking at what they’re serving in the employee cafeteria. They’re providing employees with health and lifestyle management coaches and access to traditional and non-traditional wellness programs. They’re offering advanced programs to help employees quit smoking or lose weight. They’re providing online and telephonic support systems, including 24-hour access to nurse educators, to help people with everything from diabetes to back pain make better choices, avoid the kinds of things that are proven to make their conditions worse, and do the kinds of things that are proven to help keep their conditions in check.

We’re seeing it in our communities, too, with the proliferation of public greenways and walking trails, anti-smoking legislation, trans-fat bans and the removal of unhealthy vending machines and food choices in our public schools.
The movement, and rightly so, is toward creating corporate and community environments that address, support and encourage people to be as healthy as they can be, no matter their age, health status or family history.

But this shift from treating sickness to promoting the whole health of an individual is in its infancy, and it will mean rethinking every point of our current system. Healthways and Johns Hopkins spent a lot of time on this very topic at one of our recent Outcomes Summits, and I invite you to see the fruits of our labor at www.rethinkwellness.com.

Prevention must be our focus. A recent survey by the Milken Institute suggests that even reasonable improvements in preventing and managing chronic disease can result in some 40 million avoided cases of chronic conditions by 2023, and a gain of over $1 trillion annually in labor supply and efficiency. These are gains that will compound over time and likely drive additional economic growth a generation from now.

The future is about prevention, and it will belong to companies and communities that are able to work together to create an environment where people’s health, wellness and overall well-being is no longer a burden, but a competitive advantage.

Ben Leedle is president and CEO of Nashville-based Healthways, Inc., which provides a range of services including preventive health, outcomes-driven wellness and disease management. www.healthways.com



January 2008