One of the most serious public health problems, and the leading cause of preventable death, is obesity. It also costs the United States $147 billion a year in healthcare. Your small biz can help to motivate your employees to exercise by offering discounted gym memberships, hosting company run/walks or implementing exercise programs. Yo could also bring in a nutritionist or help bring in healthy food options in the cafeteria or vending machines.

Healthy Americans may account for only 8 percent of the population, but these 24 million people are the answer to saving America billions of dollars on unnecessary health care expenditures each year. More than 40% of premature deaths in the U.S. are a result of unhealthy behaviors like obesity and smoking. These habits are costing Americans $100 billion to $150 billion a year!

Smokers have cost the U.S. $96 billion in healthcare this year. Almost 21 percent of Americans smoke, which is more than 45 million people. Therefore, employers should encourage their staff to quit smoking by offering incentive programs or access to counselors. Many companies are taking more extreme measures by implementing a tobacco-free workplace.

Lastly, be aware that the current economy may have an increased affect on your employee’s stress levels. This can lead to smoking or unhealthy eating. Make sure to continue positively reinforcing your employees and let them know exercise is a great way to alleviate stress. By keeping employees healthy, businesses can reduce healthcare costs, which in turn will impact their bottom-line.

In addition, there a six specific provisions in the bill that “directly relate” to worksite wellness programs:

• Development of a national health promotion plan
• Enhance health promotion research
• Technical assistance to enhance evaluation of workplace health promotion programs
• Regular, periodic surveys on workplace health promotion relevance and components
• Grants to pay a portion of the cost of comprehensive workplace health promotion programs for small employers
• Allowing employers to offer employees a premium discount of up to 30% for positive lifestyle practices or participation in health promotion programs

There are many “leading experts” in my field that think these provisions are the best thing to happen to the field of health promotion since the invention of “sliced whole wheat multigrain bread.” Well, I personally wouldn’t go that far. Forget making sense of the new 2,400-page health care law. Try interpreting just these new provisions, how they will be implemented and when they will begin.

We’ll let’s start with the easy part first. The Kaiser Family Foundation has a pretty good summary on their website. Its broken down the bill in an easy-to-read time-line format. In a nut-shell, here it is:

Now, here’s where it gets confusing. As you can see, out of the six, only three of the provisions have actually been mentioned. Let’s see how easy it will be to sign-up for those grants next year. While I am at it, why only keep the availability of the grants for 5 years? How about keep them indefinitely? I’ll keep you updated on the grant-process.

Next, there are so many companies, including us, that already provide wellness programs that include strategies for implementing, maintaining and evaluating the success of those wellness programs.

I understand that having information on the “foods” we eat makes us “more informed” – I say that grinning – but how much “nutrition” info can you put on a bag of Cheetos or on a Triple-meat-with-cheese? I’m just saying…

HIPAA already allows for a 20% discount on those who are participating in a “bonafide” wellness program. You can read more about how the HIPAA rules affect your small biz wellness program. Finally, we’ll have to wait and see how successful this new “pilot-program” will be.

As I wrote about earlier, it would have been great if they would have included the Healthy Workforce Act or at least specific provisions from these bill. In the next coming weeks, I’m going to do my best to better explain what these 6 provisions actually mean.

“At this critical juncture where we’re dealing with health-care transformation, we want to make sure that the federal government and our elected leaders recognize the importance of including approaches to obesity that are evidence-based and proven within their legislative strategy,” former Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona told reporters during a media briefing.

Carmona serves as the health and wellness chairperson of the Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance, whose steering committee includes the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, among other public and private organizations.

The alliance is funded by drug makers Sanofi-Aventis U.S. L.L.C. and Amylin Pharmaceuticals.

Former Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, whose 2001 report on obesity recognized the problem as an “epidemic,” emphasized the need to invest in health promotion and disease prevention, particularly for the health of the nation’s youth.

“We are in essence addicting our children to sedentary lifestyles; we’re addicting them to high-salt, high-sweet, high-fat diets,” he said, “and then we pay for it later on when they come to us with cancer, heart disease, [and] diabetes.”

America’s weight problem is pervasive. Two-thirds of the population is now overweight and obese, according to the CDC, and as many as 72 million adults are considered obese. In fact, obesity rates have doubled for adults and tripled for children since 1980.

People often see obesity as a personal failure, explained Christine C. Ferguson, director of the alliance and a research professor at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, in Washington, D.C. “The result is the problem has gotten worse and worse, and more and more expensive.”

Obesity accounts for 9.1 percent of annual health-care spending in the United States, or nearly $150 billion annually, according to a study in a recent issue of Health Affairs.

To help arrest the epidemic, the alliance urges policymakers to include four specific elements in health reform:

• Recognize proven clinical interventions. Studies demonstrate, for example, that shedding just 5 percent to 10 percent of body weight can lower the risk of heart disease and other chronic conditions.

• Enhance the use of preventive services. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends obesity screening for all adults, yet studies show height and weight data often is not recorded during an office visit.

• Foster community programs and polices that encourage and support healthy lifestyles. A community might design public spaces that accommodate walkers and bikers, for example, or sponsor a farmer’s market to make fresh produce available to local residents.

• Coordinate research efforts to improve the quality of care, show which interventions work in various settings and translate science into practice.

Morgan Downey, the alliance’s policy adviser, noted one positive aspect of health reform proposals from the House of Representatives and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee: They eliminate the worry that overweight Americans might not be able to obtain health insurance coverage because of preexisting health conditions.

“Just the removal of that language really frees up individuals who are overweight or obese to have access to health insurance,” he said.

In case you haven’t noticed, the cost of health care continues to rise. Small businesses are seeing their profits consumed by higher insurance premiums and individual claims costs. Like many small
businesses, your organization has turned to worksite wellness to help you develop healthy behaviors and lower your risk of developing a chronic disease.

Having a healthier workforce will lower direct costs like insurance premiums and worker’s compensation claims. It will also positively impact many indirect costs such as absenteeism and low
worker productivity. What does that have to do with you? That ultimately means more money in YOUR pocket!

Our health and wellness programs are your key to optimizing your fitness, dietary, and wellness goals. You now have the power to proactively regain control and transform your life. Whether you are a first time user or already a member, you’ll have access to some of the most extensive array of interactive tools and resources.

Below are some of the programs that are automatically included in your organization’s wellness program.

• EXERCISE & NUTRITION EDUCATION
• ON-LINE WELLNESS PROGRAMS
• WELLNESS COACHING
• WEIGHT MANAGEMENT
• INDIVIDUAL & GROUP FITNESS
• WELLNESS SEMINARS & WORKSHOPS
• SMOKING CESSATION PROGRAMS
• HEALTH SCREENINGS
• STRESS REDUCTION

Meant to help control the spread of the H1N1 flu virus, the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, and the chair of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee, announced the introduction of the emergency temporary legislation. The introduction of the Emergency Influenza Containment Act comes just as President Obama declared the H1N1 flu to be a national emergency last month.

The concern is that workers will not stay home even if they have a contagious illness, if they do not get paid for the time they take off from work. Currently, federal law doesn’t require employers to provide workers with paid sick leave.

If the Act is passed in its current form, it would cover both full- and part-time workers, on a pro-rated basis, in businesses with 15 or more employees. The amount of paid sick leave would be calculated based on an employee’s regular rate of pay and the number of hours that the employee would otherwise be normally scheduled to work.

The sick leave is available for contagious illnesses, including influenza-like illnesses. If you already give your employees at least five paid sick days, you would be exempt from having to provide additional days. If passed this provisions would take effect 15 days after being signed into law and would expire after two years.

The House Education and Labor Committee was scheduled to hold a hearing on the Emergency Influenza Containment Act during the week of November 16, 2009. Whether the bill becomes law remains to be seen…

Okay, if you’re still on the fence as to whether or not to start a worksite wellness program at your small business, this may help you make a decision. We already know that when your employees’ health-risks increase your costs increase. When your employees’ health-risks decrease, your costs, decrease. Period!

What ever comes out of the current healthcare reform debate, you can bet that wellness and prevention will play a big part of that reform. Implementing a small business wellness program can not only help you control costs, it may even earn you a tax credit in the near future. Let me explain.

Currently, if you already have a wellness program in place, all you get is to deduct it as a regular business expense. Now, the government has issued a proposal that would give businesses a tax credit would be allow for 50 percent of the costs paid by an employer for providing a “qualified wellness program” during a taxable year. View the video.

Under the Healthy Workforce Act, the amount of the credit would be limited to an amount not exceeding $200 for each employee not exceeding 200 employees, plus $100 for each additional employee in excess of 200 employees.  Only employees generally working more than 25 hours per week are taken into account.

For purposes of this credit, any amount paid for food or health insurance could not be included as a cost of the wellness program.  The credit would not be refundable and would not be paid in advance and would be available for a maximum of five years.

To claim the tax credit for eligible expenditures, an employer would be required to obtain a certification by the Secretary of HHS (in coordination with the Director of the CDC and the Secretary of the Treasury) that its program meets the definition of a qualified wellness program.

In order for a program to be a qualified wellness program under the proposal, all employees would be required to be eligible to participate in the program.  Further, under the proposal, a qualified wellness program includes four components:

• health awareness (such as health education, preventive screenings and health risk assessment);

• employee engagement (such as mechanisms to encourage employee participation);

• behavioral change (elements proven to help alter unhealthy lifestyles such as counseling, seminars, on-line programs, self help materials); and a

• supportive environment (such as creating on-site polices encourage healthy lifestyles, eating, physical activity and mental health). For an employer with 500 or more employees, to be a qualified wellness program, a program would be required to include all four components.  For an employer with less than 500 employees, to be qualified wellness program, a program would only required to include at least three of the four components.

In addition, to be a qualified wellness program under the proposal, the program would be required to be consistent with evidence-based research and best practices, as determine by the Secretary, such as research and practices described in the Guide to Community Preventive Services and Guide to Clinical Preventive Services and the National Registry for Effective Programs.

Finally, another option would apply all of the criteria described above as well as provide employers with 50 or fewer employees with a credit limited to $400 per employee.  This credit option would not have a sunset requirement for those employers, meaning it would be indefinitely.

We will be staying on top of this legislation, so we’ll let you know what happens!