Companies increasing healthy living assistance for employees to curb costs

South Florida Sun-Sentinel -October 7, 2007

Companies increasing healthy living assistance for employees to curb costs

By Marcia Heroux Pounds

FPL's Mike Bryce lost 100 pounds with coaching from a nutritionist and doctor at work. AutoNation's Betty Polaski is eating healthy snacks and going to Curves to exercise now that her employer pays for it. Patty Navarro received speedy treatment when JM Family Enterprises' on-site doctor suspected breast cancer.

South Florida employers are offering incentives to employees who shape up and get screened for potential health problems. Wellness-related benefits include discounts on medical premiums, company contributions to health savings accounts, free gym memberships, free cholesterol- and blood-sugar screening and guidance from a "health coach," usually a registered nurse.

The result is healthier workers and smaller increases in health insurance costs for employers. The use of health coaches and attractive wellness benefits are the latest efforts by employers to encourage workers to take better care of themselves as a way to curb corporate health-care expenses.

Mary Regier, a registered nurse who's a health coach, said the need for health coaches is long overdue.

"A doctor has maybe two or three minutes to listen to you. If I need to sit with you for an hour, I'm going to sit with you for an hour," she said.

As a health coach, Regier conducts screening and lifestyle behavior classes for M Health, a division of Mahoney & Associates in Fort Lauderdale.

"Before, I never went to the gym," said Polaski, a corporate communications coordinator with Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation, which offers employees free health-club memberships among other wellness benefits.Bryce, a human resources director for FPL's nuclear operations, went to the gym at the power company's Juno Beach headquarters but he didn't take working out seriously until January after a friend died at an early age.

With coaching from health professionals at work, Bryce changed his eating habits and began morning runs with FPL colleagues along the Juno Beach oceanfront in Palm Beach County. At 46, he now weighs a healthy 156 pounds.

"I had a great network of friends and supportive family and a company that cares about health," he said.

FPL has its own health coach as well as outside health coaches through its insurance provider, Cigna. Sometimes a coach will recommend a lifestyle behavioral program, such as smoking cessation or Weight Watchers.

Lifestyle behavioral change programs are offered by 43 percent of U.S. employers and an additional 17 percent plan to add them in 2008, according to Watson Wyatt, a national human resources consulting firm.

On-site health screening also is becoming more popular with employers.

"If employees are going to take time off and get their screening done, use it as an opportunity to educate employees," Watson Wyatt consultant MaryAnne Hraba advises employers. "Don't make it just, 'Come get your finger pricked, and we're going to tell you whether you have high blood pressure or not.' Take the opportunity to do some on-site coaching."

Companies can provide exercise equipment and health programs, but the challenge is getting employees to use them. Communication is the key, says Andy Scibelli, FPL's manager of employee health and well-being.

Kim Corbitt, 45, a business analyst at FPL, knew her family's history of high blood pressure and diabetes and decided to heed the warning. She dropped 40 pounds. The company contributes to her health savings account for participating in the weight loss program, and she eats at FPL's "health station," which offers three to four ounces of protein foods and vegetables at a discount to employees.

More than 84 percent of employees use FPL's wellness programs, according to the utility company's last employee survey. And 91 percent said they had made one health change as a result.

Early on, FPL saw a $3 savings on health-care costs for every $1 it spent on the wellness programs, Scibelli said. FPL began certain wellness benefits in 1991 and has continued to expand the program. But he says it's difficult to measure the financial benefit. "We've seen our health-care costs go down, but it's a combination of factors," he said.

Scibelli says there's an indirect benefit to the company, too.

"These programs really help attract, retain and engage the employee population," he said. "We all work long hours. Sometimes the things we would like to do to take better care of ourselves we're not always able to do."

Sometimes, a health coach or medical screening identifies health concerns that could be life-threatening.

Navarro, a corporate events planner at JM Family Enterprises, a Deerfield Beach-based operator of automobile dealerships, went to the doctors at the company clinic complaining of breast pain. Dr. Kenneth Burke rushed her biopsy results, which indicated cancer. The tumor grew quickly and breast removal was recommended.

"When he gave me the news, I was shocked. He spoke with my boyfriend. He took the time on a Saturday to deliver the news and drew out a plan," said Navarro, who continues to be monitored at the company clinic.

Every employee who has a heart attack or stroke drives up insurance costs, says Samuel Ambrose, head of corporate sales at HealthFair, a mobile screening service that recently signed AutoNation as a customer.

HealthFair, which has a 40-foot health screening bus that travels to South Florida employers, found a 54 percent "abnormal" result in cholesterol tests it performed on employees tested by HealthFair in 2005 and 2006. An abnormal result means the employee needs medical attention.

Regier, known as "Nurse Mary" among employers, has seen how effective health screening can be.

She recalls a 25-year-old man who came to her on a Monday, telling her he had been feeling sick all weekend. She checked his blood sugar and cholesterol. "His pulse was fast and his sugar measured 'high,' which was over 600," she said. Normal blood sugar should be under 60 to 120. "We sent him to the hospital. He was put in intensive care," said Regier, who used to be a nurse for the state's immigration and naturalization office. After a week in the hospital, the employee "came to me and hugged my neck. He told me he wouldn't have lived another 24 hours."

A health coach's role is "getting to know these folks, getting them to trust you and getting to know their family history," she said. "You've got to listen to people, find out what the problems are and then you've just got to solve them."

M Health's clients receive an aggregate report, but no individual health information on employees. As a result, employees share information with the health coach. More than 3,500 employees, primarily in South Florida, use M Health's coaching and screening services.

Regier is not afraid to be a bully when she needs to be, making sure patients have been to their doctors as promised. Individuals who show signs of diabetes are among the worst, she says.

"The last thing they want to do is admit it," she says. "They want to ignore it. But it gets progressively worse. It's doesn't go away. It's another silent killer."

Yet she also understands that any progress toward more healthy behavior is a good thing. In her smoking cessation classes, Regier doesn't scold the employee who cheats.

"For every three steps forward you're going to take three steps back," she tells them. The nurse focuses on how many cigarettes they didn't smoke.

And she supports incentives. In a recent class, employees trying to quit smoking are putting what they would have spent on cigarettes in a jar.

"They're all saving for something," Regier said. "One lady wants a tummy tuck. Another one wants a plasma TV."

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