Miles ahead of the curve

Model wellness program crowns Miles Kimball Co. with our 2008 Alla Tua Salute! Award

Story by Sean Fitzgerald

It almost seems as if the so-called health care cost crisis of the past 10 years is a never-ending saga.

With more than 10 percent increases each year for many companies on their group health insurance premiums, the cost of providing health insurance has far-outpaced inflation.

And every indication from industry experts foretells similar increases occurring well into the future.

Among all the tools in the arsenal of a small business owner to battle these increases, wellness programs show the most promise for controlling health care costs over time.

Why?

Because a healthier employee theoretically uses health care services less often. And theoretically, when health care as a reactive remedy is necessary, a healthier employee will use the system for less invasive, less costly care. For an entire employer group, such reduced health claims can amount to hefty savings over time.

The math behind spending even more money on wellness programs to eventually discover savings in health insurance premiums sounds attractive, but many doubting employers find the scenario difficult to place into perspective until they see it first hand.

That’s where the B2B Alla Tua Salute! Award recognizing healthy employers in the Fox Valley comes into the picture. Now in its third year, Alla Tua Salute! – an Italian phrase meaning “to your health” – captures some of the region’s best practices in corporate wellness and shares their success in the hopes that every employer will embrace the nourishing manna of wellness programs.

Most contemporary manufacturing firms already recognize the importance of safety programs for preventing accidents and injury, and don’t bat an eye when it comes to budgeting for safety training, promotions and programs each year. Why should wellness be any different, asks one of the four panel judges for this year’s award.

“Wellness is loss control for health insurance, just like safety programs are loss control for workers’ comp,” said Dan Morrill, an employee benefits consultant with The Starr Group in Oshkosh.

When placed in that perspective, it would seem a no-brainer for any business offering employee health insurance to supplement the benefit with a wellness program.

Miles Kimball Co. of Oshkosh shares that belief, from the very top of the organization all the way down through each of its 760 non-seasonal employees.

“People are our greatest assets, and given that, we need to do everything that we can do to protect our people,” said Stan Krangel, president of the catalog and Internet merchandiser of gifts, cards and household products. “(The expense for the wellness program) is an easy investment question for me. It’s the easiest one I make all year.”

With its impressive resume of wellness achievements, our B2B panel of wellness experts selected Miles Kimball Co. among all of our nominations for the 2008 Alla Tua Salute! Award. It marks the second time Miles Kimball achieved the recognition, after taking the inaugural prize in 2006.

Miles ahead of the curve
In the past seven years since Miles Kimball has conducted group health risk assessments for its employees, the results have been simply amazing.

The company’s low risk population has improved from 23 percent of the workforce in 2001 to 63 percent of the workforce this past year. Equally impressive, its moderate risk population has decreased from 58 percent to just 25 percent during that period, and its high-risk population dropped from 18 down to 12 percent.

As a result, Miles Kimball had minimal health insurance premium increases during the past seven years, and in some years those health plan rates remained flat.

“Miles Kimball is really the poster child for wellness,” said Dave Brand, a group/ employee benefits specialist with First Choice Insurance Agency of Oshkosh. “In many respects, they’re really ahead of the curve as far as what the (health plan) carriers are offering.”

Many of this year’s nominees offer employees the opportunity to take health risk assessments – a roughly $50-per-person assessment of an individual’s blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar levels, body mass index and fat percentages. Because of HIPPA and Equal Opportunity Employment laws, company officials only receive a composite score of HRA results for the entire workforce. Individual HRA results are shared with employees through a third-party health care vendor who generally conducts the assessment.

What made Miles Kimball unique among other nominees – and is also a change in policy since they won the award in 2006 – is the fact that Miles Kimball makes an HRA mandatory each year for every employee enrolled in the company-sponsored health insurance program. And not just employees – HRAs are mandatory for spouses of employees who receive family health coverage.

“All the other nominees have taken positive steps in the right direction,” said Michael Bina, principal partner with IntellectualMarketing LLC in Green Bay. “But unless you’re doing mandatory HRAs each year, you’re not reaching the 20 percent of employees who really need the help, the intervention, the disease management, the coaching and the love.”

Why’s that? Bina and our other panels concur that when HRAs are optional for employees, it’s the healthiest employees who are first in line to take the assessments. Those employees who are the least healthy are generally aware of the fact, and tend to shy away from having what they consider to be their faults – their health risks – quantified in any fashion.

Mandatory assessments for spouses on the company health plan scored big points for Miles Kimball, too.
“I really like that they’re requiring their spouses to do HRAs, too,” said Morrill. “You can have all of your employees as healthy as possible, but a lot of times you can have your highest dollar claims coming from spouses.”

Steps toward wellness
Miles Kimball contracts with Affinity Occupational Health of Menasha to include a nurse at its facilities 20 hours per week, as well as a physical therapist. Susan Wettering, the Affinity occupational health nurse for the company, not only helps employees with the occasional cough, sniffles and minor injuries, but also offers individual coaching to employees on how to improve their HRA scores. She also provides direction when an employee has a sick child, for example, on the most effective, efficient approach to care.

“A lot of what I’m doing is maneuvering them through the health care system,” Wettering said.

Miles Kimball’s wellness prowess goes beyond its staunch HRA policy.

The company’s wellness committee – made up of Wettering and one representative from each of Miles Kimball’s 16 internal departments – convinced its vending machine provider to supply an entire vending machine with healthy food options. Prices for items in the health food vending machine are typically a nickel to a dime or more less expensive than their high-salt, high-fat counterparts in the other vending machines.

The wellness committee stages four to six “lunch & learn” sessions a year which focus on topics such as stress management, exercise, or even assessing the medications an employee takes to determine if it’s an appropriate and effective mix. An upcoming health fair for all employees showcases everything from hearing and eye care specialists to options for exercise.

In regards to exercise, the company worked out an arrangement with the Oshkosh Area YMCA in which it receives a use report for employees who visit YMCA facilities. Employees who already have a membership are reimbursed each month for the cost of their dues – for those without a membership, the YMCA direct bills Miles Kimball based upon use. It’s much more effective than offering the blanket benefit of a YMCA membership to every employee.

“We don’t just buy them a membership card that will sit in their wallet,” said Susan Boettcher, human resources manager for Miles Kimball.

The company also recognizes that preventive health care is an up-front cost that can help avoid hefty health care incidents down the road. Miles Kimball’s health plan covers the entire cost of routine physicals, well-child visits, dental cleanings and colorectal screenings. It also provides annual flu vaccine clinics onsite, a smoking cessation program and a weight management program.

The company previously made once-a-week blood pressure screenings available on-site at no cost to employees. Since then, Miles Kimball has purchased two sit-down blood pressure screening machines which are on site and available to employees 24/7. They don’t even need a quarter to run the machine.

All in all, the wellness committee at Miles Kimball hasn’t rested on its laurels, and continues to demonstrate widespread improvement.

“They’ve got beautiful, measurable results. And it’s paying off,” said Chris Hanson, another of our panel judges and the president of Hanson Benefits Inc. in Kimberly.

Other programs of note
Though Miles Kimball takes the crown in 2008, our panel of judges couldn’t help mentioning some of the other creative wellness initiatives presented by other nominees from the region.

Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. of Appleton – one of B2B’s 2007 award winners – conducts an annual “Battle of the Bulge” weight loss competition, promoting and encouraging healthier diet and exercise habits among its 1,500 employees in the Fox Cities. FirstChoice Insurance’s Brand particularly liked Miller’s “Health-ful Hints” emails sent out to employees on a weekly basis, as well as the “To Your Health” presentations to staff on a quarterly basis.

Miller requires all new hires – not just those signing up for the company health insurance benefit – to take a health risk assessment within their first 90 days of employment. But HRAs are only offered every two years to Miller employees as opposed to annually, a characteristic noted by each of the panelists.

“Your health can change significantly in two year’s time,” said Hanson. “Cholesterol, high blood pressure and other risk factors can change dramatically if they go unchecked.”

Wipfli CPAs and Consultants – which has more than 750 employees, including 180 between its Appleton and Green Bay offices – received absolutely no adjustment in its health insurance premiums during the past two years as a result of reduced catastrophic claims. Wipfli also allows spouses of employees to take an annual HRA, but it’s not a requirement. One-on-one health coaching of HRA results is only available to employees with high risk factors – not to all employees – though the nomination from Wipfli said company officials are working to make health coaching available to all employees regardless of risk factors identified.

Such guidance is important, Brand said, because it helps the employee better understand what their HRA score means, how to improve the score, and how to take better control of their health. Without some professional direction, the HRA score can be meaningless.

“It’s like a patient having their blood pressure taken for the first time, and the nurse telling you, ‘You’re blood pressure is 130 over 80. Have a nice day!’ You don’t know if that’s good or bad – what it means – or if there’s anything you should do to take better care of yourself,” Brand said.

Our panelists were also impressed by the efforts of McClone Insurance Group – with 58 employees between offices in Menasha, Oshkosh, Fond du Lac and Milwaukee – which was among the smaller-sized nominees for the 2008 award. While just in the second year of its wellness program, the company boasted 80 percent participation in its optional HRAs and biometric screenings. It also launched its “Going The McClone Mile” pedometer contest this past year, which enjoyed a 75 percent participation rate among employees and their spouses.

Agnesian Health Care of Fond du Lac caught the attention of our panel judges with its onsite fitness center, dubbed “The Zone,” which is open 24 hours daily and is staffed by two physical trainers. The center provides one-on-one coaching, as well. Given the importance of communicating wellness initiatives with employees, Agnesian shares personal anecdotes from its employees of how they’ve personally benefited from wellness initiatives. Such personal stories – especially when coming from a co-worker or other acquaintance – often provide additional motivation for others to improve their own health, said Brand.

Large vs. small
For the most part, nominations received for this year’s award came from larger employers, those more financially able to spend $50 to $500 per employee for wellness. Wellness initiatives such as those offered by Miles Kimball are simply cost prohibitive for most small business owners.

All of our judges agreed – and certainly the time has come after three years – that our annual corporate wellness award be divided into categories by employer size. Beginning with our fourth annual recognition in 2009, Alla Tua Salute! will be presented separately to employers in small, medium and large-sized categories.

Even if you’re a small employer, putting a wellness program into action doesn’t have to be an expensive endeavor.

So how can your company improve upon – or even launch – its own wellness initiative without having to break the bank?

For $10 to $15 an employee, employers could sponsor a healthy lunch and bring in a speaker to discuss the impact of healthy lifestyles on annual health care use.

For employers who can afford to spend a bit more, a good starting point would be to provide HRAs to employees to get a measurable baseline of employee health, as well as to track improvements year over year. For just a few dollars more, contract with a health coach to meet one-on-one with employees to discuss their HRA results and map out a plan for improvement.

Small incentives – such as paid-time off or gift certificates to local restaurants and spas – can go a long way toward encouraging employees to exercise more, lose weight or quit smoking, as examples.

Altogether, Morrill believes if employers could spare just 1 percent of their overall employee benefits package for wellness initiatives, they’d notice a substantial return on investment. And the intangible benefits are enlightening as well.

“It really does show that you care about your employees,” said Morrill.