Corporate Wellness

"Our health stations play a vital role in corporate wellness programs. The web-based kiosks reduce healthcare costs while improve the health of individuals and employees.

Early Detection of Risk - Individuals identify risk factors for hypertension, obesity, heart disease, diabetes.

Self-Healthcare - Allows employees to record and track their progress anywhere and anytime online.

Management of Chronic Disease - Together, the kiosk and on-line wellness resources help individuals more effectively take control of their health.

Aggregate Data Analysis - Allows healthcare providers (through aggregate data info or with employees consent) to analyze results and initiate specific and effective programs."

Cost Justification for Investment in a

New York Blood Pressure

Health Station

Executive Summary

Overview

The high cost of healthcare has all but forced employers to take a more active role in managing those costs by offering wellness and disease management programs.  These include worksite biometric monitoring, activity challenges, nutrition counseling, weight loss programs, one-on-one coaching for the most at risk employees (where applicable),  and incentives to motivate even the most complacent employee to “measure, track and manage.”

Medical Findings/Statistics

Basic statistics from the American Heart Association clearly demonstrate the opportunity to improve the overall health of the average American by managing controllable risk factors.

Direct and Indirect Costs

Studies conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, other health organizations and medical professionals show over $18,000 per employee per year in overall costs related to health and lost productivity.  Heart-related healthcare costs are more than double the average payments for all other conditions.

Worksite Health Programs

Investment in even simple wellness programs can yield significant returns in improved employee health. The prevention of one catastrophic occurrence can more than justify the placement of a health station by New York Blood Pressure, Inc.

Conclusions

Whether used as a stand-alone health awareness tool or integrated as part of a more comprehensive wellness or disease management program, our health stations provide easily accessible, relevant and potentially lifesaving biometric data to employees and health managers.  Considering the prevalence of cardiovascular disease in the U.S. population and its rank as the number one killer, providing access to a proven, but simple to use device like the a health station is an obvious investment in the cause of good health for any employee population.

Medical Findings/Statistics

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), an estimated 79 million American adults (one in three) have some form of cardiovascular disease (CVD).  CVD ranks as America’s number one killer claiming the lives of over 36 percent of the more than 2.4 million people who die each year in the United States; Cancer follows, killing nearly 23 percent. All other causes account for 41 percent of deaths.[1]   Nearly 2,400 Americans die of CVD each day, an average of one death every 36 seconds.  CVD includes the following diseases: high blood pressure (HBP), coronary heart disease (CHD), heart failure, and stroke.   Of these diseases, HBP has the highest estimated prevalence affecting nearly one in three U.S. adults (20 years and older), approximately 72 million people.[2]

Medical/research organizations have identified both controllable and uncontrollable CVD risk factors.[3]

Controllable Risk Factors

• Smoking -   the number one preventable cause of serious illness such as CHD, stroke, lung cancer and emphysema.
• Nutrition - eating healthy foods low in saturated fats, trans fat and cholesterol can reduce the risk of atherosclerosis, a primary cause of heart attack and stroke.  Consuming foods lower in sodium can reduce a cause of HBP in some people.
• Physical Activity - activity can build endurance, control blood pressure, reduce cholesterol levels, aid in weight control and reduce the risk of developing diabetes.
• Weight Control - obesity is a major risk factor.
• Excessive Alcohol - excessive alcohol consumption can contribute to HBP, CHD and stroke.

Uncontrollable Risk Factors

• Age - risk gradually increases with age, but this doesn’t mean that younger people are immune.  Advanced age significantly elevates the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
• Gender - pre-menopausal women have a much lower death rate from heart attacks than men.  The risk for women rises sharply after menopause, but it still remains lower than men’s in the same age group.  Each year more women than men have a stroke.
• Heredity - some families have a higher than normal genetic risk of heart attack and stroke.  African Americans are more likely than Caucasians to have HBP, and tend to have strokes earlier in life and with more severe results.

As mentioned earlier, HBP is the most prevalent of the cardiovascular diseases and has been linked to developing additional CVD.  High blood pressure precedes the development of heart failure in 91 percent of the cases, and is associated with a two to three times higher risk of developing heart failure.  Approximately 69 percent of people who have a first heart attack, 77 percent who have a first stroke, and 74 percent with heart failure have HBP.  Data from the Framingham Heart Study indicate that HBP is associated with shorter overall life expectancy as well as shorter life expectancy free of CVD and more years lived with CVD.  From 1994 -2004, the age-adjusted death rate from HBP increased by 25.2 percent and the actual number of deaths rose 54.6 percent.[4]

Direct & Indirect Costs

Heart disease and stroke, the principal components of CVD, are among the nation’s leading causes of death and disability and the most expensive medical conditions for businesses.[5]^{, [6]}  In 2002, employers paid an average of $18,618 per full-time employee per year for all costs related to health (Group Health, Workers Comp., Short-term Disability, Long-term Disability, sick leave, unpaid leave) and lost productivity.[7]  Heart disease and stroke are the leading causes of death and disability and a source of major costs to employers.  Consider the following facts:

• Four of the top ten most expensive health conditions to U.S. employers – high blood pressure, heart attacks, diabetes, and angina pectoris (chest pain) – are related to heart disease and stroke.[8]
• In a study including 46,000 employees from six large American companies, employees at high risk of heart disease and stroke had significantly higher health care expenditures (228 percent higher for heart disease and 85 percent higher for stroke) than subjects who were not at risk.[9]
• In an analysis of insurance claims of large U.S. companies (4 million covered lives), the annual mean payment for those with heart-related heath care claims was over $4,000 per patient, more than double the average payment of over $2,000 for all other conditions.[10]

Chronic conditions that may be avoided by worksite health programs can result in a direct impact to overall health care costs.  According to a 2004 study by Cigna, the average short-term disability claim resulted in $13,094 in direct disability payments and medical costs.  Furthermore, the study also found that 26 percent of claims related to medical events were a result of chronic conditions that could likely be mediated through wellness programs, and that these cases account for 56 percent of the STD related medical costs.[11]

Both absenteeism (the cost of missed work) and presenteeism (the cost associated with employees who work at decreased productivity levels) negatively affect a business’ bottom line.  According to a 2005 survey conducted by CCH, the average annual cost of absenteeism is $660 per employee.[12] According to a 2004 study by the Institute for Health and Productivity Studies at Cornell University, sixty percent of the total cost of employee illnesses comes from presenteeism.[13]

Worksite Health Programs

In today’s healthcare cost conscious marketplace, employers have become all too aware of the increasing need to provide their employees tools to manage their personal health.  According to a 2005 study of 365 of the nation’s leading companies by The Deloitte Center for Health Solutions and The ERISA Industry Committee, the majority of companies (62 percent) that responded to the survey said they were placing a greater emphasis on improving employee health through wellness programs.  Another one-third (33 percent) of respondents were considering implementing these programs.  Only five percent of respondents had no plans to adopt any programs.[14]

Detection and awareness are keys to creating behavioral changes through wellness and/or disease management programs that will ultimately improve employee health.  According to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2004), nearly thirty percent of individuals were not aware they had HBP and of those who were aware only thirty-five percent had their condition under control.[15]  Up to 95 percent of HBP cases stem from unknown causes, but the condition is easily detectable and most cases can be controlled with proper treatment.[16]

By achieving blood pressure control, the burden of illness may be reduced and cardiovascular events avoided.  According to the Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7), the relationship between blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular disease events is continuous, consistent and independent of other risk factors.[17] There is a direct correlation between blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, the higher the blood pressure the greater the chance of myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, and kidney disease.  For individuals aged 40 to 70 years, each increment of 20mm of mercury (HG) in systolic blood pressure and 10mmHG in diastolic blood pressure doubles the risk of cardiovascular disease across the entire blood pressure range from 115/75 mmHG to 185/115mm HG.

According to a review of 42 studies, worksite health promotion programs can lead to more than 25 percent reductions each in absenteeism, health care costs and disability/workers’ compensation costs.[18]  Although it may take about 2 to 5 years after the initial program investment to fully realize the savings, the savings clearly justify their value.  Comprehensive worksite health programs focused on lifestyle behavior change, have been shown to yield for every $1 invested a $3 to $6 return on investment.[19]^{, [20], [21]}

To bring things into context, the cost of a health station from New York Blood Pressure with accompanying data management tools is between $159 and $399 per month.  If an employer were able to prevent coronary artery disease in one employee, they would achieve a monthly savings in health care costs between $883 (no mental health diagnoses e.g. depression) and $1,358 (with mental health issue)[22].  The annual cost of the health station would be recouped in about two to seven months of treatment to that one employee.

For more information on corporate wellness programs and leasing a monitor contact:

New York Blood Pressure, Inc.

  info@nybpinc.com
585-624-2541