Businesses told employee health impacts bottom line

The former president of the American College of Preventive Medicine says promoting a culture of health in the workplace must be a top priority for businesses because it impacts employee productivity and overall costs.

Dr. Michael Parkinson, speaking Tuesday at Mercy Medical Center to  85 people representing about 40 Corridor employers, said healthy behaviors are the largest single determinant of how long people live and how much they and their employers spend on health care.

“It's not your parents, or whether someone in your family had asthma 10 years ago, or just bad luck” Parkinson said. “Healthy behaviors are directly tied to whether your company is globally competitive with Korea, China or Japan. That's why it's job one.

“Unfortunately, many employers think it's all about buying health insurance. They're thinking about locally-based care and who has the best network. They couldn't be more wrong.”

Parkinson, a principal with P3 Health, which assists employers and health care organizations to enhance prevention, performance and productivity, said employers should not look to Washington, D.C., for strategies to reduce health care costs and improve employee productivity.

“If we can leverage the workplace to improve healthy behaviors, we can dramatically improve not only employees' health, but economic bottom line costs for employers,” Parkinson said. “It's not just something nice to do. It's a business imperative.”

Parkinson said business leaders need to model healthy habits, such as taking the stairs instead of using the elevator or doing “walking” meetings where the participants get some exercise as they discuss business issues. He said companies also need to understand that employees need to unwind and relieve stress or it will manifest itself in higher medical claims for heart disease and high blood pressure.

Smoking, the major cause of death in the United States, is being banned by more companies each year, according to Parkinson. He said most are eliminating smoking on their property and giving smokers an opportunity to quit by paying for smoking cessation aids.

“If that doesn't work, many companies are moving from using a ‘carrot' to wielding a ‘stick' in the form of higher health insurance premiums for smokers,” Parkinson said. “They're also not hiring any new employees who smoke.”

Parkinson said obesity is expected to overtake smoking as the leading cause of death in the United States. He pointed to 2008 statistics showing 68 percent of adults and 32 percent of children were overweight or obese.

“The average adult life expectancy may actually be decreasing and children may live two and a half years less on average than their parents,” Parkinson said. “Medical spending for obesity-related conditions accounts for 10 percent of total health care costs.”

Parkinson said Americans believe they can eat whatever they want and there will always be a pill or treatment to counteract the harmful effects of their actions. He said because of time constraints, doctors may spend little time counseling lifestyle change that can work as well or better than the best drugs for heart disease, obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure.

“Thirty-five percent of all health care spending is considered wasteful or inefficient,” Parkinson said. “There's a lot of overuse of antibiotics, tranquilizers, antiinflatory drugs, lifestyle drugs and cardiac catherizations.

“We have a lot of uncoordinated visits to health care providers and many tests are duplicated because the results of previous tests can't be located. We underuse vaccinations and chronic care management for conditions such as heart disease or diabetes.”

Parkinson said more emphasis is needed on performance in the workplace, rather than dealing with absenteeism caused by poor health habits. He said companies need to align their corporate mission with health and wellness, recognizing that employee productivity is directly related to overall competitiveness.