Wellness study: Best practices to improve medical cost trends and employee health

In collaboration with Mercer, the nonprofit Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO) has released its second annual Best Practice Scorecard. An analysis of more than 700 employers was conducted to find the workplace health management program practices that are most likely to result in improvements in medical cost trends and employee health status.

According to the report, the best practices most strongly associated with positive outcomes were:

• Including spouses in key components of the program;
• Promoting all wellness activities under a single brand name;
• Having a formal, written strategic plan with financial objectives; and
• Active participation by senior leadership in wellness programs.

Other findings:

• Seventy percent of Scorecard respondents now conduct biometric screenings to alert employees of possible health risks.
• Personal coaching-by telephone, online or face-to-face-has become one of the fastest-growing offerings in health management programs.

The free HERO Scorecard provides employers with an inventory of best practices for successful health management and analyzes how programs stack up against companies of similar size and in similar industries.

More information about the HERO Scorecard 2012 Annual Report is available at http://www.the-hero.org/.