2009, a good year for wellness

The ongoing workforce health management/wellness movement gained momentum in 2009, as virtually every type of program—from health risk assessments to disease management to behavior modification—rose significantly, according to the National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, conducted annually by Mercer, a consulting firm.

“A lot more employers were willing to bet on health management in 2009,” said Linda Havlin, Mercer’s global health and benefits intellectual capital leader. “There’s growing anecdotal evidence that well-designed and communicated health management programs can improve outcomes, but we need to better understand and eliminate missed opportunities like noncompliant patient behavior.”

Trends for 2010 and beyond

Reducing health care cost increases is the overwhelming goal for wellness programs in American businesses, according to the Buck Consultants’ 3rd annual global wellness survey. Other parts of the world focus on improving productivity by keeping employees healthy and working (in Asia the most important objective is improving workforce morale). Other trends from the survey:

Stress is consistently cited as the top health risk driving wellness programs in all areas of the world except for the U.S. and Latin America where lack of exercise and poor nutrition are of top concern.

Wellness programs are most prevalent in North America where 77% of respondents offer them.

The fastest growing components of wellness initiatives around the world are technology-driven tools, such as Web portals, online healthy lifestyle programs, and personal health records.

Onsite programs expected to rapidly increase include caregiver support, personal health coaching, and healthy vending machine food choices.

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