Health costs

  • 2012 Milliman Medical Index

    This report by Milliman—one of the most respected actuarial firms in the world—provides their annual index and report on U.S. employer health care costs that is authoritative and very valuable. …

    Downloads: 0

  • 2013 Milliman Medical Index

    This report from Milliman summarizes the result of a large survey of U.S. employers for employee health benefit cost patterns as of 2013. This data updates employer health benefit costs.…

    Downloads: 3

  • 27% of All Health Costs Preventable in 2016

    What is this about? The document highlighted in this edition of the Connections newsletter is a newly published study from the British Journal Lancet Public Health. The article reports on an…

    Downloads: 14

  • Advanced Directives Tool L3-9

    This tool addresses skills that are need to exercise advance directives. For our purposes, the definition of “advance directives” is as follows: “An advance healthcare directive, also known as living…

    Downloads: 7

  • AEI Recommendations for Improving the ACA

    With the surprise 2016 Presidential election results the ACA is likley to be going through change in 2017.  The attached document is from the AEI, a well-known conservative think tank,…

    Downloads: 8

  • AMSO Worksheet Tool L2-1

    The worksheet can be used to examine the extent to which a particular behavior or health risk factor addressed by your wellness program meets the requirements of the AMSO approach.…

    Downloads: 46

  • Annual Program Evaluation Survey Tool L1-11

    This tool is a sample of a program evaluation survey that can be used to evaluate a wide range of issues about the effectiveness of an employee wellness program. The…

    Downloads: 79

  • Assessing Organizational Readiness for Wellness Tool L2-12

    An organization’s readiness for Wellness and Well-being programming is usually shaped by senior management’s attitudes toward Wellness along with the propensity of the organization’s “culture,” meaning the commonly held set…

    Downloads: 38

  • Average Costs of Health Conditions

    What is this about? The document in this edition of Connections is a comprehensive 22-page article from JAMA that provides a great deal of health care cost summary information for the…

    Downloads: 27

  • Budget Example Tool L4-15

    This tool has an example of a Budget for a Large Employee Wellness Program. Published 2016.

    Downloads: 38

  • California Health Care Almanac

    This 36 page Health Care Cost Almanac from the California Health care Foundation contains some great slide content.  This set of slides can be lifted out of the document and…

    Downloads: 4

  • Concept Paper Tool L3-1

    The workplace is an ideal site for the establishment of an employee wellness program. The many reasons for this are highlighted in this tool and can be used to help…

    Downloads: 15

  • Consumer Health Education Tool L3-7

    This tool contains a detailed listing of consumer health education skills. Our definition of Consumer Health Education is: “The set of skills that enables the individual to efficiently and effectively…

    Downloads: 25

  • Creating a Culture of Wellness Tool L4-8

    Creating a “culture of wellness” in your organization takes a lot of work.  It doesn’t happen by accident or serendipity!  There are a number of strategies that must be done…

    Downloads: 68

  • Diagnostic Codes Tool L4-5

    This file contains conditions that are generally recognized as epidemiologically associated with specific lifestyle and health risk factors.  The diagnostic codes are from the International Classification of Disease Agreement- 9th…

    Downloads: 9

  • Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance: Recent Trends and Future Directions

    This 28 page policy brief just released from the NIHCM identifies the way employer health plan coverage is changing in response to the ACA.  This article provides a clear set…

    Downloads: 4

  • Estimating Presenteeism Costs in Your Organization

    What is this about? Another major challenge facing all U.S. employers involves estimating the current organizational cost associated with employees who are at work but have an underlying health problem that…

    Downloads: 31

  • Futuristic Look at Wellness Tool L4-13

    This tool is a futuristic scenario about a worksite wellness program. A Futuristic Look at Worksite Wellness: A Morning with Marie. Published 2016.

    Downloads: 22

  • Getting Management to be Serious About Wellness

    What is this about? Unfortunately, most employee wellness programs in the U.S. are both under-funded and relatively ineffective.  They also tend to be more tactical in nature with limited strategic or…

    Downloads: 14

  • Glossary of Health Insurance Terms Tool L4-6

    This tool contains the terms associated with the design, implementation, management and use of health insurance plans. Published 2016.

    Downloads: 15

  • Government Spending for Health Entitlement Programs

    This report provides details on government spending on healthcare. Spending through the two principal health entitlement programs — Medicare and Medicaid — accounts for well over a third of U.S.…

    Downloads: 0

  • Health Care Cost and Utilization Report: 2010

    This inaugural Health Care Cost and Utilization Report summarizes national trends in health care utilization and  cost, focusing on 2009 to 2010. Large quantities of private claims data are needed…

    Downloads: 0

  • Health Care Spending Rises with More Coverage and Care

    This document contains a very useful compendium of U.S. health care cost data up through 2015.  Based on national health care expenditure accounting sources, it provides a very useful set…

    Downloads: 12

  • Health Insurance Chartbook 2016

    Recently the federal government released one of the most comprehensive and authoritative chartbooks profiling health insurance coverage, costs and trends for working Americans.  This 168 page publication provides one of…

    Downloads: 15

  • Health Monitor HRA Tool L1-14

    The Health Monitor represents a third generation HRA that has the potential to be used for a large number of follow-up interventions, such as those identified in Tool 1-8. The…

    Downloads: 16

  • Health, United States, 2017 with Special Feature on Mortality

    What is this about? Author:  Larry Chapman.  This annual government report of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) provides the most recent and complete summary information on the major health…

    Downloads: 9

  • Hierarchy of Results Tool L4-11

    This tool contains a table that provides detail about the various possible results associated with worksite wellness programs. The results are presented in a hierarchy with the most foundational results…

    Downloads: 12

  • How to Calculate ROI Tool L2-10

    This tool includes two detailed examples of how to calculate the Return-on-Investment (ROI) of an employee wellness program using primarily health care cost changes. Example #1 is for situations where…

    Downloads: 55

  • HRA Interventions Tool L3-11

    This tool contains a large number of possible follow-up interventions from information collected by a well-being assessment or health risk assessment. in addition to general advice about efforts that would…

    Downloads: 13

  • Ideal Health Plan Design Tool L4-7

    The Ideal Health Plan characteristics suggested here are for use in either public or private organizational settings and are appropriate for large, medium or small size employee groups. The Ideal…

    Downloads: 28

  • Ideal Health Plan Tool L3-10

    The Ideal Health Plan characteristics suggested here are for use in either public or private organizational settings and are appropriate for large, medium or small size employee groups. The Ideal…

    Downloads: 11

  • IDM Case Study Tool L4-3

    This tool contains an example of an organization with a conventional set of absence and disability benefits. The example below illustrates how the organization can progress from a conventional disparate absence…

    Downloads: 5

  • Incentive Pay Values Tool L3-12

    There are a large number of different types of possible incentive rewards that can be used in wellness programming. These are often referred to as “pay values.” For our purposes…

    Downloads: 25

  • Incentive Pay Values with Survey Tool L4-16

    There are a large number of different types of possible incentive rewards that can be used in wellness programming. These are often referred to as “pay values.” For our purposes…

    Downloads: 19

  • Injury Prevention Skills Tool L3-8

    This tool contains a detailed listing of injury prevention skills. Our definition of “Injury Prevention” is as follows: “The set of skills each individual needs to minimize their personal risk…

    Downloads: 4

  • Lifestyle Medicine and Disease Reversal

    What is this about? This edition of Connections newsletter provides an important article that addresses the potential for disease reversal. Published in an international scientific journal it raises the core premises…

    Downloads: 15

  • Listing of Biometric Measures Tool L2-7

    The file contains some of the key measures that are typical as components of biometric screening and testing in worksite wellness programs. Each biometric measure is identified along with its…

    Downloads: 1

  • Master FAQ List Tool L2-2

    The file contains general responses to frequently asked questions that are often raised by key stakeholders about employee wellness programs.  You can augment these answers to suit your own organizational,…

    Downloads: 16

  • Measuring Health and Productivity Management (HPM) Effects

    What is this about? A major challenge facing all U.S. employers is measuring the current status of their Health and Productivity Management (HPM) and the effects of their employee wellness/well-being intervention…

    Downloads: 16

  • Medical Self-Care Skills Tool L3-6

    Medical Self-Care is an area of health knowledge and capability that addresses the way we consult medical references and use home medical equipment to diagnose and treat minor, self-limiting health…

    Downloads: 6

  • Modular Program Evaluation Tool L3-13

    This tool provides examples of a modular program evaluation approach that can be used with an employer's wellness program. The idea for permanent or on-going program evaluation identified in previous…

    Downloads: 11

  • National and Employer Health Costs: 2018 & 2019

    What is this about? These two articles capsulize recent major patterns in U.S. health care costs.  The two articles are full of data on patterns and trends in employer health costs…

    Downloads: 23

  • New Study on the Costs of Modifiable Health Risks

    Summary: This new study documents the excess risk premium (additional annual health costs) associated with 10 modifiable health risks from 7 industries and 223,461 employees covering the period 2007 to…

    Downloads: 30

  • Obesity in the Workplace: Impacts, Outcomes and Recommendations

    The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) is the authoritative group that provides guidance to health professionals that serve and care for employee populations in work organizations.  This…

    Downloads: 18

  • Organizational Costs of Unhealthy Habits

    What is this about? This edition of Connections provides a recently released special report that uses authoritative sources to document the usual additional health and productivity costs associated with unhealthy lifestyle…

    Downloads: 47

  • Possible Interventions from HRA and Screening Data Tools L1-8

    This tool contains a detailed discussion of 60+ follow-up interventions that can be implemented from information that is collected through the completion of a Health Risk Assessment/ Well-being Survey combined…

    Downloads: 16

  • Possible Metrics Tool L4-12

    This publication provides an overview of a practical metric framework that can be used to guide the implementation and evaluation of an Health and Productivity Management (HPM) approach. It is…

    Downloads: 12

  • Program Descriptions of Effective Wellness Programs Tool L1-12

    This tool provides a description of 10 employer programs that have earned the prestigious C.Everett Koop awards. This is the highest honor that can be awarded to employers for their…

    Downloads: 29

  • Program Design Worksheet Tool L1-13

    This worksheet is to be used to help you plan and organize the various activities you are considering for your worksite wellness program. The worksheet uses the 6 step program…

    Downloads: 46

  • Reducing Metabolic Syndrome through a Wellness Intervention

    This recently published article in JOEM presents the findings of a 1 year program focused on the reduction of metabolic syndrome risk among a health plan employee population. The aim of…

    Downloads: 11

  • Reducing Unnecessary Primary Care Use: Less is Really More

    What is this about? This edition of Connections provides a recently published article that gives us a practical and systematic methodology and set of recommendations to reduce low value or “unnecessary”…

    Downloads: 16

  • Results from Wellness combined with a CDHP

    A just published article in JOEM that presents the findings of a 5 year strategy combining a targeted well-being improvement strategy along with a full replacement Consumer-Driven Health Plan (CDHP).…

    Downloads: 12

  • Sample Request for a Health Plan Claims Analysis

    What is this about? Employer health benefit costs are headed up again. Estimates range from 6% to 9% or higher annual increases for 2020 renewals.  For larger organizations a health plan…

    Downloads: 12

  • Sample Wellness Proposal Tool L4-10

    The tool is a draft proposal is for a state-of-the-art employee wellness program for a company with approximately 18,000 employees.  This proposal can be modified and edited more extensively for…

    Downloads: 47

  • Short Primer on Wellness Program Evaluation

    This 30 page document provides a quick and efficient look at key issues in program evaluation of worksite wellness and health promotion programs.  It includes discussion of a number of…

    Downloads: 26

  • Solution Set #2 – Worker Health Cost Worksheet

    I have a vivid memory of sitting across from the CEO of a company with 18,000+ employees after I had asked him how much he was spending per year on…

    Downloads: 12

  • Solution Set #3 – Wellness Program Results Hierarchy

    Ever find yourself wondering what results people actually expect from an employee wellness program?  Over the years I have had lots of conversations trying to nail this issue down with…

    Downloads: 22

  • Strategies for Optimizing Results Tool L2-11

    This tool contains a more detailed discussion of the 10 major strategies for optimizing the results and return from your employee wellness program. For each of the 10 major strategies…

    Downloads: 24

  • Summary of Injury Prevention Skills Tool L4-4

    This tool contains key injury prevention skills and related questions for work, home, vehicular and recreational pursuits. Published 2016.

    Downloads: 2

  • Summary of the Benefits of Wellness Tool L1-3

    This tool includes a summary of the various types of benefits associated with worksite wellness programs. The tool emphasizes the benefits from the vantage point of the individual, employer, community…

    Downloads: 9

  • The Future of Public Health

    Summary: This summary article originally presented at the prestigious Shattuck Lecture at the Massachusetts Medical Society, by the Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and provides a…

    Downloads: 10

  • Trends in Prescription Drug Use in the U.S.

    This 14 page article published in JAMA highlights trends in prescription drug use for adults in the U.S. between 1999 and 2012. This summary data was derived from the National…

    Downloads: 2

  • Updated HERO Data Tool L4-9

    The Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO), a Birmingham, Alabama based non-profit corporation, maintains a multi-employer health risk and health cost database.  This database has been used to provide invaluable insights…

    Downloads: 10

  • Viewpoint on Health Literacy

    This recently published article from JAMA highlights the significance and key implications of the growing problem of health literacy. The National Academy of Sciences has also published a series of…

    Downloads: 3

  • Wellness Case Study

    This white paper summarizes the one, two and three-year outcomes of one large employer with a well-designed, well implemented wellness program. This paper is based entirely on peer-reviewed, scientific evidence. …

    Downloads: 30

  • Wellness Challenge Case Study

    This 8 year case study of an employee wellness program provided by HealthForce Partners of Bothell, Wa to the Everett Clinic of Everett, WA for 1,800+ employees produced a flat…

    Downloads: 12

  • Wellness Metrics Tool L2-9

    The file contains the major organizational goals and recommended metrics for use in a wellness program management dashboard. These are organized around the constructs of productivity, cost reduction and program…

    Downloads: 29

  • What to Look For During a Walk-Through Tool L2-13

    When planning an employee wellness program it is important to have a good understanding of the physical nature of the work performed by employees throughout the organization and the actual…

    Downloads: 5

  • Where Your Health Care Dollar Goes – An Infographic

    What is this about? This edition of Connections newsletter provides an informative 5-page infographic plus explanatory text describing the typical distribution patterns of commercial health insurance expenditures for 2018 to 2020. …

    Downloads: 13