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Attachment 3 - Notes of various types done within the A in the class
Course: Hist & Historians (HIST 300)
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Medical cost analysis of a school district worksite wellness program
Ray M. Merrill
a,
⁎, James D. LeCheminant
b
a
Department of Health Science, College of Life Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
b
Department of Exercise Sciences, College of Life Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
abstractarticle info
Available online 26 January 2016 Objective: To evaluate whether participation in a worksite wellness program differs by age and sex and is
associated with frequency and average cost of medical claims. Methods: Healthcare cost data were available for
school district employees during the academic years ending in 2009 through 2014. The wellness program was
available in the later 3 years. The frequency and the average cost of medical claims were compared between
the 3 years prior to and the 3 years during the wellness program. Results: Wellness program participation
increased from 65.6% 2011–2012 to 79.7% 2012–2013. The increase occurred within age-groups and for males
and females. The average age of program participants was significantly lower in 2011–2012 (48.2 vs. 49.4,
p= 0.0099), but similar in the next 2 academic years. Participation in at least one behavior change campaign
in each year was 52.1%, 53.7%, and 73.7% of all wellness program participants, respectively. Female employees
were significantly more likely to complete one or more behavior change campaigns in each year of the wellness
program (pb0.0001). The percentage of employees filing at least one claim per time period was higher for those
in the wellness program (pb0.0001), but average medical claims payments were lower for those in the wellness
program. After subtracting program costs, the cost savings from the wellness program was $3,612,402. The
benefit-to-cost ratio was 3.6. Conclusion: Participation in the wellness program resulted in lower average medical
claim costs than non-participation but number of claims were higher in program participants.
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Keywords:
Cost-effectiveness
Prevention
Return on investment
Worksite health promotion
Introduction
The cost of insurance premiums and employee medical claims costs
have increased in recent years and are at an all-time high (The Henry J.
Kaiser Family Foundation, 2014). According to the Kaiser Family
Foundation and Health Research & Educational Trust, the average cost
of health insurance premiums for a family of 4 has increased by 69% in
the last 10 years (to $16,834) with employee contributions increasing
by 81% (Trust, K. F. F. and H. R. E., 2014). Additionally, in the Western
United States among companies consisting of 200 or more employees,
premiums and worker contributions among employees covered by
employer-sponsored coverage increased from $2194 in 1999 to $6353
in 2014 (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2014). In an attempt
to curb rising costs, many employers are adopting worksite health
promotion programs (Allen, 2015; Caloyeras et al., 2014; Liu et al.,
2013; Merrill, 2013; LeCheminant and Merrill, 2012; Henke et al.,
2011). Several studies have identified medical cost savings resulting
from employee-based health promotion programs (Maeng et al.,
2013; Merrill et al., 2011; Patel et al., 2011; Patel et al., 2010; Naydeck
et al., 2008; Aldana et al., 2005; Serxner et al., 2003; Serxner et al.,
2001; Aldana, 2001). Reducing health care costs is not the only rationale
for worksite wellness programs, but they can help employees be more
responsible for their lifestyle choices, promote better general health,
improve employee productivity, reduce absences and illness, shift the
healthcare paradigm from treatment to prevention, improve productiv-
ity, increase employee job satisfaction, increase retention, increase
morale, and so on (Chen et al., 2015; CDC, 2014; Michaels and Greene,
2013; Niessen et al., 2012; Witt et al., 2013).
Nevertheless, the effectiveness of worksite wellness programs has
been questioned (Felter et al., 2013; Frakt, 2014; Mattke and Liu,
2015), particularly for their ability to produce a financial return on
investment (Baxter et al., 2014). In a systematic review of 33 methodo-
logically rigorous peer-reviewed U.S. wellness program reports, the
authors found evidence for positive effects on diet, smoking, alcohol
use, exercise, physiologic markers, and health care costs but limited
evidence for absenteeism and mental health (Mattke et al., 2012). A
recent review of the financial return on investment associated with
worksite health promotion programs showed that the quality of the
study design was important; the return on investment ranged from
0.26 (high-quality study designs) to 2.32 (low-quality study designs)
(Baxter et al., 2014). Notably, Baxter et al. also reported that the 12 ran-
domized controlled trials included in this study produced, on average, a
negative financial return on investment (Baxter et al., 2014). Other
Preventive Medicine Reports 3 (2016) 159–165
⁎Corresponding author at: Department of Health Science, Brigham Young University,
2063 Life Sciences Building, Provo, UT 84602, USA.
E-mail address: Ray_Merrill@byu.edu (R.M. Merrill).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2016.01.002
2211-3355/© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Preventive Medicine Reports
journal homepage: http://ees.elsevier.com/pmedr
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