Benefits | HR Soot

Today is the first Friday in the month of November, and I will be wearing BLUE. If you are not aware, November is American Diabetes Month. A goal of this effort is to bring attention to the fact that nearly 26 million Americans are living with diabetes, and another 79 million are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

Blue Fridays is an initiative to bring attention to World Diabetes Day (November 14th), American Diabetes Month, and the impact that the disease has on those who are living with it. World Diabetes Day signifies that the disease is impacting more than Americans, but rather is a world-wide health issue. I encourage you to check out the links in this post for more information.

Employer Health Plans

I realize that the overwhelming majority of HR Soot readers are above-average people with an interest in human resources, or a loosely related professional discipline. As I recently disclosed, diabetes has become a very personal issue for me, and has also changed my world views concerning employee benefit plan design and administration.

From a HR/benefits perspective, we should all be concerned that the 26 million Americans currently living with diabetes, and the additional 79 million who are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes are the participants and dependents in our health plans. According to studies cited by Aurora Health Care, diabetes has been identified as the 3rd most costly physical health condition for employers, and the average diabetic plan participant has an annual cost of approximately $21,000. The good news is that several studies conducted by health plans (including those cited in the Aurora link) demonstrate that diabetes costs can be effectively managed in health plans by helping participants to actively engage in treating and managing their disease.

It Begins with Awareness

The effort to support our employees, and control our health plan expenses begins with awareness. We can help our diabetic employees to better understand and manage their disease by providing ample resources and liberal, first-dollar plan coverage that more than pays for itself. We can also help those employees at risk for type 2 diabetes to understand and eliminate many of the risk factors, which are little more than lifestyle choices. Even if you are among those who believe that it is not a moral imperative for employers to engage employees at this level, at its core it is the right economic choice to help mitigate the rising cost of your employer’s health insurance.

I invite you to join me in wearing BLUE each and every Friday during the month of November.

I would be thrilled to spark a dialogue among HR and benefits professionals around strategies to reduce health plan costs through better diabetes management. What do you think about the employer’s role in chronic disease management?

My organization is getting set to kick off the 4th year of our Employee Wellness Program, and I am excited. Overall, employee participation in the program is higher than we projected at this point, and it is growing in numbers and energy. We are just now beginning to see evidence of behavioral changes in our health plan population, which include higher compliance with preventative exams and procedures (e.g., mammography, prostate screenings, and annual exams), and better compliance with treatment for chronic disease management. This is what we designed the early stages of the program to accomplish.

As a benefit administrator, I am excited to see real numbers supporting the underlying theory behind these long-term strategies. As a human resources leader, I am excited for the engagement with our employees around helping them to improve their overall health and well-being. At a very personal level, we have been touched by some incredible stories from employees and family members who have credited the wellness program with the diagnosis of life-threatening diseases, and chronic health conditions. Lives have literally been saved.

The Real Reason Why Wellness Matters

I have literally written this post a dozen times over the last six months. I have been very reluctant to publish it, but I’ve decided that the learning is too important to ignore. My doubt, anger, frustration and fear are very real, but so is the value of a well-designed wellness program. As a result of my personal participation in the wellness program – I figured that I needed to set a solid example for everyone else in the organization – I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

Just so you are clear about how I feel about this disease: I f**king HATE it! It has changed my life in ways that I would never have anticipated. I really wish that I did not have to manage this condition on a daily basis. And, there is nothing I can do to change the reality – I simply have to deal with it.

What’s very interesting to me six months later – since I have calmed down just a bit from the shock of the diagnosis – is that I never even considered the possibility that the wellness program would hit so close to home. The experience has given me an entirely new perspective on designing health and wellness benefits, and the lesson is that there is more to plan design strategies than numbers.

Let’s Not Lose the Human in Human Resources

Over the past decade, our profession has worked very hard at becoming more strategic partners in our businesses. We are far better with numbers, projections, calculating ROI, and tracking metrics along the way. We are learning how to assess the correlations between HR metrics and the organization’s bottom line. These are all the right things to do.

But, let us not forget that the systems, processes and programs that we design are still aimed at meeting the needs of human beings. What we design in the context of our business strategies will affect the lives of the people who make our businesses successful. Be careful with what you design! It just may affect you in ways that you never imagined.

[The blue circle is a symbol of the International Diabetes Federation]