New Study Highlights Healthcare Benefits

According to a new study, “Synergies at Work: Realizing the Full Value of Health Investments,” healthcare benefits are often overlooked by employers. Results show many companies often overlook benefits offered to their employees and instead focus on insurance premium costs.
The study stresses what employers need in healthcare decision making and provides a framework for evaluating health-related investments. In addition, it supplements the analysis with case studies that include eight employers. The paper was written by Mark Fendrick, MD, (co-director of the university of Michigan Center for Value-Based Insurance Design) and Thomas Parry, PhD and president of the Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI) and IBI Research Director Kimberly Jinnett, PhD.
According to a press release distributed about the study, Dr. Fendrick shares, “Employers can contribute greatly to the transformation of the health system by focusing on value and not simply on financing and who pays.” He believes the workplace is an excellent place to promote healthy choices and better living. “It is imperative that we move beyond the current paradigm of exclusively measuring medical offsets, and include measurement of the effects in increased productivity that accompanies improvements in health."
The study finds for employers, the impacts of health-related investments are normally measured in terms of medical costs and savings. This overlooks the value and potential return on investment from health-related productivity increase. This could include reductions in health-related work absence, disability, improved job performance and overall improvement of quality of life for employees and their families. If employers recognized the additional human capital value of their health investments, this would help support overall initiatives to improve employee health as well as productivity. 
The study also notes to fully assess the impact of poor health, companies should look into data beyond medical claim data (such as incidence and duration of workplace absence and disability, intervention results and self-report surveys).
With the traditional approach, employers normally undervalue the impact improved health outcomes can have on businesses and their employees. 
The National Pharmaceutical Council funded the research for the study.
 

Modern Business Associates is an HR company that focuses on payroll and HR outsourcing. We routinely work with clients on benefits package design. As a Professional Payroll and HR outsource organization, our clients rely on us to help them effectively deal with these kinds of topics.