Investing in Health

Today I faced a tough decision. My employer is having its annual “Health Fair” in April and today I had to decide if I should spend $20 to have my cholesterol checked. My other option was spending that $20 at Outback on a steak and cheese fries. Ultimately I caved in and decided to go for the blood work. That makes two cholesterol checks and four steaks over my six years at TTU.

The last time I participated in the Health Fair, my report told me that I had high cholesterol and I should talk it over with my doctor. Unfortunately, I’ve never met my primary care physician, so it’s never come up. I’ll get around to it some day.

I’m not sure how many TTU employees participate in the health risk assessment offered during the Health Fair. I suppose most of them are like me. I’d prefer to be healthy, but my employer has offered to absorb the cost of my medical treatment. So if I continue eating lots of cheese fries and survive the heart attack, I know that my health insurance will pay the humongous hospital bill. Maybe after that I’ll start taking my health seriously.

If I owned a business and provided health insurance to my employees, attitudes like my own would horrify me. Attitudes like mine contribute to the phenomenal increase in employer health care costs each year. That’s why many organizations are taking drastic steps to force employees to take responsibility for their own health. Johnson & Johnson is a great example.

In 1995, Johnson & Johnson decided to offer the same kind of health risk assessment that many employers (including TTU) offer. They decided, however, to make it available for free. That way, employees did not have to choose between the blood work and the cheese fries. They were slightly disappointed when only 26% of their employees participated.

In 1996, Johnson & Johnson decided to try and increase participation by giving employees a $500 reduction in their health insurance premium if they participated. That year, 90% of their employees participated. With over 40,000 employees, that’s quite an investment. How could it possibly pay off?

The health risk assessment done by Johnson & Johnson identified over 4000 employees who were at risk for developing heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and a variety of other conditions. Those high risk employees were then asked to participate in a program called Pathways to Change. This program provided employees with education and other types of encouragement to improve their health.

Over the first three years of the program, participants in Pathways to Change were more likely to exercise and less likely to have high cholesterol and high blood pressure. For all of their efforts to improve the health of their employees, Johnson & Johnson realized a net savings of $225 per employee per year over the first four years of their health and wellness initiative. That’s $225 after paying the $500 to everyone tested and all other expenses of the program.
To boil it all down, Johnson & Johnson discovered that paying people $500 each to participate in a health risk assessment was cheaper than treating the heart attacks lurking in that group.

For $500 I would show up for the health risk assessment and promise not to eat cheese fries for a whole year!