It’s just a fact that when employees are doing well in all areas – physically, emotionally, and more – their healthcare costs are lower, and they produce 31 percent more. That’s where population health management comes in. After all, there are advantages to tending to employees’ overall wellbeing, including their sense of purpose and community.
Listen, there’s no doubt that you have employees who are, unbeknownst to you, struggling with mental illness, substance abuse or some other challenge to their wellness that isn’t visibly, readily apparent. But do you know the benefits of population health management? Let’s discuss.
What is Population Health Management?
Population health management is a strategy in which companies and healthcare organizations utilize employees’ health info to identify those who may be at risk, create healthcare best practices, and empower employees to participate in their health. It’s an approach that is increasingly popular.
Why Do I Need Population Health Management?
Perhaps your organization has a wellness program. Most do. But really, has it saved you money by way of lower healthcare costs? And have you conducted a thorough cost-benefit analysis? Have you gauged your program’s effect on employee health? You want to be certain that you’re putting your money into efforts that effectively target your people’s needs.
According to RAND, workplace wellness programs have to chief functions:
- Lifestyle management. These are smoking cessation, weight loss, chronic disease, and risk factor reduction programs that are incentivized to promote participation.
- Disorder management. These programs are aimed at helping employees with disease management.
The problem with lifestyle management programs, according to RAND, is that, while they’re important over time, their short-term ROI is just 50 cents for every dollar spent. For example, it takes time for many conditions, including heart disease and obesity, to develop.
Also, less than half of all employees take advantage of health risk assessments, even if they’re incentivized to do so.
Disease management programs, by contrast, deliver a short-term return on investment of $3.80 for every buck spent. They’re better at paring treatment and hospitalization costs because they seek to control existing conditions among those in the workplace.
How Population Health Management Differs from Wellness Programs
With population health management, your treatment is based on your health data, which is used to ID risk and craft treatment plans that combine lifestyle and disease management. Employees using this system are more apt to participate in assessments and other testing. Why? Because health outcomes are improved by the data
The Benefits of Population Health Management
The best population health management solution can offer tools that help employees to act and surmount their challenges so that they can become more engaged and productive. That’s good for them, their families – and you.
What with ever-upward spiraling healthcare costs, the main benefits of population health management are controlled costs, improved quality of care, and increased revenue produced by a happier and healthier workforce.
Also, because you’re offering great benefits, you’re improving your prospects in the areas of employee recruitment and retention. Remember, the best programs take a whole-person approach to organizational wellness.
The bottom line is that the benefits of population health management positively effects, well, your bottom line, through increased production turned out by hale and whole employees. But one-size-fits-all doesn’t work in population health management. You do need a management team that will take the time to understand your workforce and help you to put in place a program that will have your employees, as well as your organization, performing on all cylinders.