.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} It doesn’t take a triathlon coach to show your employees how to live a healthier lifestyle. But having one on your side can sure help you to get started.

Jenny Weber, a certified USA Olympic triathlon and bicycling coach, is leading the Wellness Council of Iowa in an initiative to develop a statewide network of wellness coaches to work with companies to improve their workers’ health.

“The philosophy is to evaluate the health of individuals in an organization and determine the approach that will bring them the best results,” said the 34-year-old Weber, who in August was named interim executive director of the Wellness Council.

The organization’s board of directors is evaluating a plan to coordinate the program with several potential corporate partners.

“The dream is to have a health coach physically located in all 99 counties; that’s our goal,” said Doug Reichardt, chairman of the Wellness Council.

The initiative is part of a groundswell of efforts in Iowa and across the country aimed at addressing rising health-care costs by focusing on ways to reduce the risk of chronic diseases that are caused by lack of exercise, poor diet, overeating and other unhealthy lifestyle choices.

A study released last week by the Employee Benefits Research Institute indicates that a growing number of Americans are embracing workplace wellness programs. Eighty-two percent of respondents in the nationwide survey said they have a positive opinion of wellness programs. And 76 percent agreed that employers that offer wellness programs are showing concern for their workers.

Principal Financial Group Inc., which underwrote the EBRI survey, is launching an integrated health-improvement program that combines a traditional health insurance policy with a wellness program. Employees of companies opting for the coverage will receive immediate discounts on their health premiums that continue if they meet certain wellness criteria or enroll in a program to improve their health.

Similarly, Aviva USA has just rolled out a life insurance plan in which participants can qualify for annual premium discounts by having regular physical examinations and maintaining their weight within an agreed-upon range. As part of the program, they’ll have access to wellness resources through Mayo Clinic Health Solutions.

Healthy mission

Reichardt, chairman and CEO of Holmes Murphy & Associates, said his own company has served as a “petri dish” in demonstrating that wellness programs can effectively lower health-care costs and create their own return on investment. Holmes Murphy has reduced its claims cost per employee by 5 percent over the past three years through its wellness program, which includes annual health-risk assessments of employees.

“What we’re trying to do is drive people up into this (healthy) range,” he said as he held a scatter chart with dots indicating the body-mass indexes and blood-sugar levels of each his employees, “to prevent the next heart attack, stroke or cancer.”

“When I combined (the wellness program) with what we were doing with the Iowa Games, what we were doing with Lighten Up Iowa, the dots started to get connected,” Reichardt said. “So in a strategic planning meeting (of the Wellness Council board), I said, ‘We need to develop a mission and a vision.’ The mission is to be the healthiest state in the nation, and the vision is to have better business through wellness.”

Reichardt said he hopes to present a business plan for the wellness initiative at the board’s next meeting on Nov. 13.

In broad terms, the program will provide corporate coaches who will train a company’s own coaches to establish wellness programs, Weber said.

“It needs to be a more high-touch, personal delivery than it has been in the past,” she said. “As Wellness Council of Iowa, we’re the toolbox, not necessarily the individual tools. What we can do is teach them how to deliver an effective and innovative strategy that hopefully is changing the behavior of their organization.”

Weber, who is co-owner of Zoom Performance, a training company for triathlon and marathon competitors, is also involved in several running clubs and events, among them RunAblaze, the Des Moines Triathlon Club and the Big Creek Triathlon. She is pursuing a master’s degree from Iowa State University to become a registered dietitian.

Weber acknowledged that the fitness and wellness needs of many people in corporate America don’t reach the level she has attained. But the basics remain the same, she said.

“At the end of the day, everyone wants someone to help them set goals, and to listen to them, and to set more realistic goals for their life,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re going out the door to run 10 miles or to walk your first half-mile. It’s about finding a plan that’s balanced for their life.”

The next logical step

Under the Principal Medical Wellness Series of products, which will be launched Nov. 1, employees at a covered company and their spouses will automatically receive a 6 percent discount on their health insurance premiums for the first three months. During that time, they will be required to complete a health risk assessment and wellness screening.

The assessment will measure factors such as blood pressure, weight and cholesterol levels. Those who score at least 80 of a possible 100 points will continue to receive the savings. Those who don’t meet the criteria will have the option to enroll in Principal’s TakeCharge program to work with a health coach, and will receive the savings if they’re working toward improving their score.

The program, available to businesses with as few as two employees, is the “next logical step” in health benefits, said Jerry Ripperger, Principal’s director of consumer health. Rather than having separate health benefits and wellness programs, the new offering marries the two and puts the savings within the reach of smaller companies, he said.

“We very much want this to be viewed as an incentive approach to encouraging people to improve their health,” he said. “Our hope would be that everyone either passes the threshold, or they’re willing to engage in improving on those thresholds so they can stay in the enhanced plan design.”

Principal is introducing the program in Iowa and Michigan, with plans to roll it out nationwide in early 2008. The program has already been packaged as an association health plan offering for the Iowa Association of Business and Industry for its member companies.

In July, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued regulations for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which gave insurers a clearer picture of how to proceed, Ripperger said. “Now that we have a pretty solid idea about what these programs have to look like, we’re able to design them within the discrimination guidelines,” he said.

From a legal perspective, employers need to tread carefully when developing a wellness program, said Greg Naylor, a labor and employment attorney with Whitfield & Eddy PLC.

“The more sophisticated the incentive program you have, the greater the likelihood there is that state and federal regulations will be attached to them,” he said.

“Depending on the requirements of the program, you could run into age or gender discrimination issues under the Iowa Civil Rights Act or the 1963 Civil Rights Act,” Naylor said. Setting a target body mass index standard, for instance, can be disputed as an unfair measure for people over 40 or for women. And companies with employees represented by labor unions would have to consider the terms of a wellness program a bargaining item under the National Labor Relations Act, he said. The tax ramifications for employees of the added benefits are another consideration.

“Of course, there are great savings incentives for employers to participate in this,” he said, “But at the same time, be careful before jumping in, because if you don’t examine the legal ramifications, you could find yourself in a difficult position.”

Walking time bombs

Changing people’s health habits will take time, Ripperger said.

“It’s going to take some ongoing support and guidance for us to become engaged and make some improvements,” he said. “But on the other side of that, unfortunately, there are a lot of walking time bombs among us. There are a lot of people who have cholesterol that’s 300, that have blood pressure that’s pushing 170. Identifying those people and getting early intervention will absolutely prevent some of those costs; we will prevent some heart attacks and strokes by identifying people early and getting them engaged.”

Under the program, the participating companies will receive the savings, and it will be up to them to determine how much they’ll pass on to their employees, Ripperger said.

On Oct. 15, Aviva USA announced its plans to offer premium discount incentives for its life insurance customers through its Wellness for Life program.

“For the first time ever, customers have the opportunity to reduce the cost of their life insurance by meeting some wellness-oriented criteria,” said Brian Clark, executive vice president and chief product officer for Aviva USA.

Aviva customers who enroll in the program will be able to access wellness assistance and information from Mayo Clinic Health Solutions. Mayo’s program includes access to a health assessment and personal wellness Web portal, a toll-free clinic nurse line for questions on health issues, a quarterly newsletter and discounts on Mayo Clinic wellness services and programs.

The amount of the savings on participants’ insurance premiums will be based on improvement in life expectancies for all those enrolled in the program. Participants will be eligible for savings if they have regular physical examinations by a doctor and if they maintain their weight within a range established for them when they purchase the policy.

The program will be sold as an optional rider on several fixed indexed universal life policies, with a one-time cost of $100. The potential savings are available in any year the insured person meets the criteria, and there are no penalties for not qualifying for savings in any year.

Reichardt said he believes there is “an incredible demand pull” for wellness services statewide. “There is a need out there in any given community for the resources and support mechanisms to help people maintain a healthy lifestyle,” he said.

“We are in the forefront of the evolution that used to rotate around employee insurance plans,” Reichardt said. “We’ve changed the paradigm to health plans versus insurance plans. Insurance plans take care of the sick; health plans really take care of those that want to maintain or improve their health.”