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Employee Wellness Programs Need an Upgrade

May 19, 2021

Even before the pandemic, employee wellness programs were becoming popular among employers. Now, the popularity and necessity of employee wellness programs has been expedited. And companies know that these programs can benefit their bottom lines. They are not only great recruitment tools, they’re also great retention tools. Healthier, happier employees are more productive and stay longer. Healthier employees also cost less.

But there are several challenging aspects of workplace wellness programs. Just in time for National Employee Health and Fitness Day, let’s go over a few of those challenges and explore some potential solutions.

Assigning Employee Wellness Programs to HR or Management

Many companies, when implementing a workplace wellness program, lean on HR or Management. Your Human Resources department does a lot to support your teams. So does your Management. They recruit, train, resolve, educate, and more. It’s going to be hard to tell them to provide resources and help administer a workplace wellness program.

Another concern is measurement. Especially since they’re not healthcare professionals, how will they develop key metrics and determine ROI? Is this something you’ve considered tracking?

An alternative is to contract with an outside agency to create and execute your plan. That gets costly fast.

Are Employee Wellness Programs Entirely Relevant?

Are you able to make an employee wellness program relevant to the needs of every employee? Definitely not. Hint: That’s only something a provider can do. If your main goal is to reduce healthcare claims, then it’s time to dive into a solution that’s more efficient for everybody.

The root problem is that healthcare is greatly lacking in accessibility, while also being wildly expensive.

Many of these employee wellness programs have popped up because healthcare is getting less accessible and more expensive. For those two reasons (and many more), employees are discouraged from seeing their doctor for preventative, regular healthcare. They only go when they absolutely need to – and sometimes, only to discover more serious health ailments. It’s a tale as old as time.

If your ultimate goal is to save money by reducing health insurance claims, there is a better, more efficient solution than a wellness program.

SOLUTION: Upgrade your Employee Wellness Program to Direct Primary Care

The truth is, we’re all operating in a sick healthcare system. And like we all say to our overworked friends, “You can’t help anyone unless you help yourself first.” That is the job of Direct Primary Care, to cure the healthcare system so we can help patients and their providers become healthy participants within that system.

Our recommendation is to drop the expensive workplace wellness program that maybe works? maybe doesn’t? and upgrade with the PROVEN and AFFORDABLE Direct Primary Care option.

What is Direct Primary Care?

Direct Primary Care is a healthcare membership. In the membership, patients contract directly with their provider for a low, flat, monthly fee for unlimited access. Employers can contribute to that fee, too (with Strada, the fee is $99/month). The membership covers most of the patient’s healthcare needs.

The unlimited access to their provider actually encourages patients to see their provider often. They can text or call or go in for a physical appointment. Patients develop better, more personalized relationships with their providers. Providers gain a deeper understanding of the patient’s history, genetics, lifestyle and more. The main focus becomes prevention and lifestyle change, versus a 10-minute appointment and quick prescription write-up.

This means a significant increase in long-term health, not only managing but reversing chronic conditions, and an overall, long-term decrease in healthcare costs (for you and them).

What’s more, Direct Primary Care eliminates 100% of primary care claims and significantly reduces urgent care claims.

Direct Primary Care Works with Insurance

Direct Primary Care isn’t health insurance. It does, however, work alongside high-deductible insurance plans (HDHP) to elevate the patient healthcare experience. Think of Direct Primary Care as “regular, everyday healthcare coverage,” and HDHP as a catastrophic plan – something you hopefully won’t have to use. With the lower premiums associated with HDHP and the low monthly Direct Primary Care fee, patients often find significant healthcare savings or that “My Direct Primary Care membership pays for itself.” In addition, patients pay no copays and don’t work to meet a deductible for primary care with Direct Primary Care.

Partner with an Expert to Administer and Measure Your Direct Primary Care Offering

An expert partner should be able to handle employee education and enrollment, payment processing, employee hotlines, key performance indicator (also written as KPI, measures success in particular activities) reporting and analytics, and more. You also need to choose a Direct Primary Care organization with experience, a wide network of providers, and relationships with specialists and imaging services to get the best cash prices.

You might consider partnering with Strada Healthcare, the Nebraska-based national leader in Direct Primary Care, with affiliated clinics across the country. Learn more about how we help businesses succeed in their health offerings here.

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