The data speaks volumes! Companies either need to adopt effective employee wellness programs, or not offer medical benefits to their employees.
And, if they choose the latter, say good-bye to all of your talented employees.
CFO’s who do not implement or take employee wellness seriously should be held accountable for the loss of profits in their company. Profits are squeezed out of the company each year to cover the raising medical expenses. Yet a CFO could decide to implement a health promotion strategy that requires participation by all employees and reduce medical costs significantly in the first year.
What CFO would not want to do business with a company that says “You give me three dollars, and I will give you six?”
In essence that is what eHealthCompete can do for companies that want to finally take control of their number two cost – health insurance.
Kelly Benefits called today to dicuss our wellness programs. They pointed me to a recent report that they compiled. It is an excellent report and can be read here. I have listed my favorite findings from their report.
• The USA has the best health care system in the world, but is ranked 37th by the world health organization in the health of its population. These means we are great at treating sicknesses, but not great at keeping people from getting sick.
• 33% (or 880,000) of all deaths in America are attributed to Lack of Exercise, poor eating habits and tobacco use.
Smoking
• 46 million adults smoke
• Smoking costs $75.5 billion in medical expenses and $92 billion in lost productivity
• Each pack of cigarettes costs the nation $7.18 in medical expenses and lost productivity
Nutrition
• Average American consumes 54.5 gallons of soft drink per year
• Each 12 ounce serving of soft drinks contains the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar and 150 calories
• One 12 ounce sweetened soft drink per day increases a child’s risk of obesity by 60%
• The typical American consumes three hamburgers and four orders of fries per week
• Americans spend more money on fast food then on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos and recorded music COMBINED!
Obesity
• Obese people spend 36% more on Health Care and 77% more on medication
• Obesity is associated with 39 million lost work days each year
• 50% of Americans don’t get enough physical activity to derive any health benefit
• In a typical week (168 hours) the average American will spend 47 hours at work, 16.55 hours in front of the TV, 50.6 hours sleeping
• The above bullet point shows that Americans spend 113 hours a week – or 5 days – not moving!
• 7% of Americans have diabetes right now, 40% of Americans ages 40-74 are classified as pre-diabetic
Prevention
• The average cost of heart bypass surgery is $57,073
• The average cost of an MRI is $1,980
• Yet a $60 pair of walking shoes could drastically reduce or eliminate the need for either procedure
I would love to hear what you think of this report.
GoogleTalk can tell a story even without using its chat feature. For instance, the image to the right was a screen shot I took a couple of nights ago at about midnight. You can see that my mail box was clean and my wife was already in bed, asleep. 
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