By:Bonnie Butler
Just how healthy are you and should your workplace have your health interests at heart?
If you are feeling stressed out or depressed, how can you perform your job properly?
No matter where you fit into the employment scene, whether you are an employer or an employee, you should know the answer to these questions. Health care is an ever-evolving field and rightly so. The days when simply treating physical conditions as they arise are on their way out, replaced by an emphasis on prevention and mind/body health and wellness.
This shift has a sound economic basis for the employer. If you are an employee, knowing your health care resources is essential and even more important is how to access your options. For employers, making sure you and your employees know what is available can make life better and more profitable for everyone.
Many employers who are faced with the health care of their employees are interested in the bottom line. What will this cost the company? This is a true reflection of one of the biggest obstacles to health care, and that is economics.
In the winter of 1999, HERO, a not-for-profit coalition of organizations interested in promoting health, managing disease, and conducting research on health-related productivity, released its findings about the relationship between risk factors and medical expenses. The organizations of HERO work together in an effort to shift health-care from a diagnose-and-treat approach to one of prevention.
In the HERO study, chaired by Dr. R. William Whitmer, over 45,000 employees working for a variety of employers were entered into a database.
The study evaluated the following risk factors, beginning with the most prevalent: poor exercise, former tobacco user, poor nutritional habits, extreme high or low weight, current tobacco user, high cholesterol, high stress, high blood glucose, high blood pressure, excessive alcohol use, and depression.
The database allowed investigators to study multiple risk factors that lead to a high risk for heart disease, stroke or psychosocial problems. Of the employees studied, 72 percent incurred health care costs during the study period. Those with persistent depression spent more than 70 percent over those not depressed. Those with uncontrolled stress spent more than 46 percent above those not affected by stress. And employees with high blood glucose spent almost 35 percent more than those with normal blood sugar.
These are just some of the breakdowns and they point to the ever-increasing necessity to prevent health problems rather than treat them when they appear.
Having access to high quality health care resources benefits many others in addition to the patient. In the workplace, it translates into a higher percentage of days spent working, increased productivity, decreased health-related expenses, and decreased insurance. For family members and friends, there is the decreased burden of caring for someone who is sick. Not just applicable to physical health issues, this is clearly the case when it comes to dealing with mental health issues as well.
Though it may be hard to believe, it was not until The Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 1999 that full insurance parity was required for severe mental health disorders including but not limited to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, panic disorders, post-traumatic stress and autism.
This act states that limits cannot be set regarding the number of outpatient visits and inpatient days required for treatment. Furthermore, the insurer must fully reimburse services just as it would for other physical conditions.
Studies show that there is a way to trim the cost of mental health care as much as 25 to 30 percent. How? By supporting mental health counseling. Patients who receive psychotherapy show a significant decrease in hospitalization, prescriptions needed, physician visits, office visits, emergency room visits and telephone contacts.
In light of HERO’s findings, shifting from treatment to prevention becomes not just the right thing to do, but also the most economically sound approach to health care.
How do employers facilitate this shift to better health? How do employees partake in it? Employers now have access to local health services that provide on-site education, health screenings and employee psychological support (through an Employee Assistance Program).
Employers can have a direct impact on their business expenses by facilitating their employees’ access to improved mental and physical health. This will also result in improvement in retention and attraction of new high quality employees.
Employees can gain support and information through a variety of services such as health fairs, seminars, health screenings, and employee assistance counseling. Offerings at the company site reduce costs by maximizing employee exposure and time. Services can be tailored to meet the needs of any given population, based on risk, and these targeted programs benefit employers and employees alike.
Some of the most popular and successful sessions include: balancing work and family, stress management, sleep disturbances, recognizing and managing drug and alcohol abuse, sexual harassment, managing relationships, eating healthy, getting started with exercise, making behavior changes for wellness, anger management, special needs of female employees, depression and burnout.
Health screenings include: blood pressure, high blood sugar, cardiac risk assessment, cholesterol level, back health assessment and healthy lung assessment.
As you can see from reading this list, it is likely that you can identify with at least some of these issues. Now imagine the needs of a pool of employees and consider all the health issues you can address during a health fair.
Over a lunch hour, you can cover issues such as diabetes management; massage therapy; women’s guide to breast cancer, osteoporosis and menopause; men’s guide to prostate health, kidney stones and how to quit smoking; stress management; nutrition; cardiovascular risk assessment; ergonomics; vision screening; flu shots; and cholesterol screening.
Any health matter can be addressed. As we advance into the 21st century, it is important that we take health matters seriously and recognize the many benefits of prevention. As our grandmothers once said, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.?
Bonnie Butler, Registered Nurse, is director of Corporate Health Services and The Confidential Advisory Program at The Medical Center at Princeton. Health Matters appears Fridays in the Lifestyle section of The Packet and is contributed by The Medical Center at Princeton.

