A team of employees from Kyocera participated in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Walk to Cure Diabetes, for which it was an event sponsor.

Health care is one of the highest costs of doing business, and providing employees with insurance isn’t enough to ensure their health. As heart disease and diabetes continue to increase, business leaders look for ways to encourage healthy lifestyles.

A study by the California Department of Health Services estimates physical inactivity, obesity and overweight cost California $21.7 billion in direct and indirect medical care, workers’ compensation and lost productivity in 2000. These costs were projected to increase to more than $28 billion in 2005.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that medical care costs for treatment of chronic disease account for more than 75 percent of the nation’s $1.4 trillion medical expenses.

In 2002, the state Legislature launched the California Task Force on Youth and Workplace Wellness to address critical issues of physical activity and nutritional health in California’s schools and workplaces. The task force believes employers can be valuable in promoting healthier lifestyles of employees. Employees are more apt to be on the job and perform well when they are in optimal health. To support policies and initiatives that promote better worksite nutrition and physical activity, the task force created the Workplace Wellness subcommittee. This subcommittee is creating, in collaboration with the California Department of Health Services, a Fit Business Tool Kit, wellnesstaskforce.org/fitbusinesskit.html, and presents the annual Fit Business Award.

On a local level, San Diego employers are working with area hospitals to create their own wellness programs utilizing hospital services and the Internet. Scripps Health and Kaiser Permanente are at the forefront with in-house programs for employees that act as models that are utilized by other businesses.

"As a health care provider, we should be leading in this type of activity as an employer," says Chris Van Gorder, Scripps CEO. "We are self-insured for our health benefits and we are a health care provider. I think hospital and health care employees tend to use health care services a lot. As a result, our cost, as one of the largest employers in San Diego, is huge. We have the same kind of costs as an insurer as any other employer."

The Scripps Wellness Program was born from the 2003 Scripps Leadership Academy, a yearlong program for up-and-coming managers. Available to all Scripps employees and their families, the system provides individuals with tools, resources and programs to help them make healthy lifestyle choices and informed health care decisions. Launched in April, the program features personal wellness assessments and on-site activities to promote healthy lifestyles. A key component is an interactive Web site administered by Winning Habits, a company that created Internet-based software for users to collect, aggregate and analyze key data about their health and well-being. Online, HabiTracker allows users to record daily activities and meals to learn how many calories to consume to lose weight, and provides daily health news updates.

“If people live a healthier life style, their cost for medical care goes down,” Van Gorder says. “We know for a fact that being overweight and obese leads to very expensive medical conditions, diabetes being one.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the direct and indirect costs of diabetes are nearly $132 billion a year.

Van Gorder says Scripps developed its program because “It’s the right thing to do for our people. If they are healthy they will have less lost work time, fewer sick days. When they are here they will be better staff members and it will cost the organization less in providing health care insurance long term. It takes a lot of work to put on this kind of program,” Van Gorder says. “It doesn’t happen by itself. And I think the cost benefit is getting to the point now where there is huge benefit for the organization and I think as a result more businesses are going to take this on. We now have experience with this and we can help our community businesses provide this for their people as well.”

Hamilton Mears manages Scripps’ corporate wellness program. “From what I understand, first-year programs are doing well if 35 percent of the employee population elects to participate,” he says. “We are rolling out site by site and so far 65 percent of all the eligible employees have elected to participate. The response has been extremely positive. People feel well taken care of; it seems to touch them in a very personal way.”

Results At Scripps

At Scripps Green Hospital, where the program has been in place for several weeks, cafeteria reported sales of salad and water increased immediately, compared to the entrées with more calories and fat. Participants who were not clinicians, without a medical background, were talking with each other about their blood work. Because Scripps’ 10,500 employees are spread out across several hospitals and clinics, and because work hours are all hours, Mears says it is important employees be able to access information and programs 24/7, making the Web site a must.

Scripps offers a large menu of services for the community. From physicians giving health education lectures to emergency preparedness and response services, Scripps’ Well-Being Centers in Chula Vista, Encinitas, La Jolla and City Heights offer a range of wellness classes and support groups open to the public and utilized by businesses.

Engaging in regular physical activity is associated with taking less medication and having fewer hospitalizations and physician visits. As a result, Kaiser Permanente has broken out its in-house 10,000 Steps program, which encourages employees to walk more, and made it available to businesses, members and the public. At Kaiser many programs guide businesses in employee wellness. From walking to company health fairs to discounts for Weight Watchers, Kaiser provides the tools and can act as a consultant to create “personalized” programs.

Kyocera employees took part in the company’s annual volleyball tournament to benefit the Make a Wish Foundation. Kyocera also has basketball courts on its property.

“We’ve been doing (these programs) for several years,” says Kate Kessler, Kaiser’s San Diego area marketing director. “However, in the past two years the focus has heavily gone toward the worksite wellness information, especially the online tools that are available.” Kaiser has customized Web pages with links to Kaiser Permanente health education information.

“Programs vary by (company) size,” Kessler says. “We encourage employer groups to publish health education materials in their newsletters or with payroll stubs. We encourage them to focus on what is important to their population. For some of our larger groups, we are able to look at what services they are utilizing more than others and what chronic conditions their employees have. We can actually focus on conditions that mean something to those specific employer groups.” For businesses with a large group of diabetic employees, education articles can be customized. For companies willing to make a cost commitment, Kaiser will develop an in-depth wellness program that includes health screenings or physicals at the work site. These screenings may reveal problems employees aren’t aware of, like high cholesterol or blood pressure. Many businesses will provide employees with incentives like gym memberships to improve their health.

By partnering with individual businesses, Kaiser is able to assess a person’s needs and develop an easy-to-use program. “But it really needs to be the employer who is committed to following through and encouraging employees to be a part of them for it to work,” Kessler says. “We have noticed that allowing employees to go to these classes during work time makes a huge difference rather than making them go on their lunch break. So there are different ways that employers have found to motivate employees.”

UCSD Medical Center provides a multitude of services to contracted companies through its Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine but it does not package its services into any one program.

The center has a vaccine and travel clinic and can provide medical surveillance for employees who work with pharmaceuticals and sensitive research materials. It has the leading blood-borne pathogen exposure program in the county and provides counseling and treatment for these exposures. Drug and alcohol testing is available as well as OSHA mandated testing, fit for duty exams and pre-placement physicals. Immunization programs and pulmonary testing also may be utilized by businesses for employees.

Massaging Programs For Success

General Dynamics, Hunter Industries, Sempra Energy, various school districts and the county are making employee health a priority. The cost effectiveness of prevention has led to businesses putting into play creative wellness programs of their own. They are seeing that massage, yoga and on-site gyms help relax and retain employees, leading to better quality work. Cassidy’s Massage Clinic services a number of San Diego companies. “We go in and do chair massage for the employees,” says Chris Cassidy. He says one of his largest accounts utilizes his services for 36 hours a week and has been providing employees with massage therapy for about three years.

“They used to have one to two work comp claims a month in injury,” he says. “Since we’ve started, they haven’t had any. In terms of the cost vs. benefit ratio, this blows it out of the water.” Cassidy says he doesn’t just rub necks and shoulders. Through the years he has designed a stretching regimen that addresses areas of the body impacted during work. Applying stretches empower the employees to avoid things like carpal tunnel and shoulder pinches and motivates them to continue therapy on their own. “When businesses provide an extra like this they get greater productivity, less injury and the employee feels more appreciated,” says Cassidy.

At Kyocera, wellness is one piece of the work/life balance program. “There are different kinds of soft benefits that we provide our employees,” says Raina Rutlen, senior learning specialist, “We have a big community outreach program. Brown bag seminars that address wellness, finances and family, and we partner with Scripps for things like smoking cessation, weight management and preventative care.” Additional programs offer chair massage, stress management, desk yoga, benefits of tea and benefits of laughter seminars.

“When you’re looking at a healthy, happy employee, they are more productive, they are not having as much time off and there is a direct cost benefit in terms of preventing major situations such as heart disease, diabetes and lung cancer,” says Carol Jaenisch, Kyocera compensation benefits and HRMS manager. “Every smoker costs you something like $6,000 to $7,000 a year. If you help that employee to stop smoking, there is a direct benefit. Usually they take more breaks and those types of things. It not only helps the employee, it helps the employer.” Kyocera offers the Healthy Roads Program, which focuses on major lifestyle killers like obesity and smoking, in addition to help with elder care and reducing stress. “The payoff for the company is that the employee is happier,” Jaenisch says. “In general, when you are feeling more content and happy with your life, that reflects back in the way you work.”

Easy Access To Self Help

With nearly 43,000 employees, San Diego-based SAIC provides a health and wellness site on its Intranet. “Where we have specific guidance we provide to our employees actions they can take to improve their health,” says Chief Administrative Officer John Warner. “This includes daily tips on nutrition and exercise.” Also available is information on substance abuse, smoking, weight loss, depression, immunizations and diabetes. “These are common kinds of areas and one of the problems anybody has, if they have a health problem themselves or for a family member, is going on the Internet and wondering, ‘Where the hell do we go?’ We put together sites we felt were reputable.”

Maintaining good health is the employee’s responsibility, but it is clearly in the best interest of businesses to make available easy access to information and assistance. One area of importance is prenatal care. “About four years ago we had two years where we had four pregnancies that cost the company $2 million,” Warner says. “It was a situation where the women were high-risk individuals relative to pregnancy and ended up with premature births and excessive expenses.” Had those women had access to the information provided by the company today, much of the risk and cost could have been avoided. “There is a cost benefit and a family and life improvement benefit to having good information. It was both factors that motivated us. A healthy workforce obviously is a better workforce. You can look at that in straight economic terms, but I think the more important aspect is the quality of life for the employees.”

After researching and developing the program, SAIC has made it available to other companies through the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce.

Caring At A Corporate Level

Kyocera employees participated in last year’s Bike to Work Day.

Caring about employee health may have started with the simple provision of an annual flu shot, but today some corporations are taking top-notch care of their employees and investing in their managers’ health. For those businesses, there is the Corporate Wellness Program at Sharp Memorial’s Cushman Wellness Center. The center offers something different from the general workplace wellness approach in Sharp’s other departments. “The health screening program we do is a more in-depth, very thorough medical evaluation for key personnel in businesses,” says center director Dr. Neil Treister. “I think there is a greater appreciation by businesses of the importance of keeping their workforce healthy. There is a lot more mobility in the workplace and people want a healthy environment. They want companies that value their health and the health of all the people who work there.”

Employers seek people who are healthy and balanced in their work and family life. “People are better workers and employees if they are more well rounded and happier and healthier with their lives in general,” Treister says. The center provides corporate personnel with detailed medical evaluation and looks at mind/body balance, stress, nutrition and exercise levels. “And then we give them the tools and skills to improve that balance and improve all the aspects of their health,” Treister says.

Medicine is there to help, but individuals have responsibility for their health. With businesses joining doctors in urging healthier living, it may soon be a way of life.