A Quick and Low Cost DIY Employee Health Risk Assessment For Dallas Fort Worth Texas Small Business Owners

Whether or not a small business in Dallas Fort Worth Texas offers a group health plan for its employees, the company president or business owner should have a solid understanding about the overall health of their employees and their employees' spouses.  

A forward thinking small business leader in today's environment must realize that they have a responsibility and a duty to the company and to all employees to promote health not only in the workplace, but also at home.

In Texas, only slightly more than one third of small businesses of 250 employees or less today offer a group health insurance to their employees. The reasons for this are many, cost and affordability being the most prominent reasons.  Group health insurance premiums for a family of four costs on average more than $20,000 per year in the Dallas Fort Worth area.  Even if the employer covers all of the cost for covering the employee, often the employee cannot afford to cover the cost of coverage for their dependents.

Many small businesses hope to grow and prosper to the point where they can afford to offer a group health insurance plan to retain and hopefully attract talented employees. When a business first applies for a group health plans,  it may find that the rates from insurance carriers have been "rated up" because of pre-existing conditions of the employees.  In Texas, group health insurance carriers can raise the rates ("rate up") the health insurance premiums to small businesses of 50 employees or less by up to 66% based on the health conditions of the employees.  So the already high standard rates for small businesses can quickly become astronomically unaffordable if there are serious health conditions among employees or the employees dependents.

And if a company already has a group health insurance plan, the annual rate increase can push skyward at renewal time if a serious health condition occurs among an employee or dependent on the plan.  At that point, the options are few, because other health insurance companies will also base their rates on the health of the employees.

Does this mean that a Dallas Fort Worth Texas employer should only hire and employ healthy people?  Absolutely not!  To do so is clearly discriminatory and illegal. 

Does this mean that a Dallas Fort Worth Texas small business owner should actively promote healthy lifestyles at work and at home by employees and their dependents, and should actively encourage and incentivize employees to improve their health? Absolutely yes!  By doing so, owners and presidents of small to mid size businesses in Dallas Fort Worth can save their company and their employees tons of money, and improve the quality of life for employees and their family.

According to the Center for Disease Control, 75% of all diseases are preventable. The most dreaded and costliest of diseases, the ones that cause the most suffering and devastation to families, the ones that cost small to mid size businesses in Texas several billion dollars every year, and cost individuals and families several billions more, can be traced back to two lifestyle choices: weight/obesity and tobacco use. 

Over two thirds of adult Texans are overweight, and over 25% are obese, and about 20% use some form of tobacco.  These are lifestyle choices that individuals make that cost money, and cause suffering and death.  Obviously, this is a serious public health issue, but it is also a critical health issue for any small to mid size Texas business, and one that every business owner must address.  Every Texas business must address obesity and tobacco use head on, and actively work to encourage employees and their dependents to lose weight and cut tobacco use, or they subject their company to major catastrophic health claims, as well as lost productivity.

Is it fair that an obese employee or one who smokes pays the same amount for their portion of the company's group health insurance premium as an employee that does not smoke and is not overweight?  And is it fair for the healthy employee to have to pay up to 66% more for their group health insurance premium that was rated up to the maximum by their health insurance carrier because an obese or tobacco using employee contracted diabetes, had a heart attack or stroke, or contracted cancer? 

Is a key person in a small business, perhaps a sales manager or a plant manager who the business depends on for its survival, being responsible to their fellow employees and to the business if they are obese or if they smoke?  And since an unhealthy dependent spouse or child may have the same impact on the company's health care expense and productivity loss risk, business leaders who are willing to tackle this issue also must extend the push towards wellness into the home as well.

A simple Employee Health Risk Assessment tool devised by Group Benefits advisors is the first place a small or mid size business person should begin.  This tool is a simple color coded chart that a company president can assign someone in the company to fill out, or can even do themself within an hour or two.  The chart assigns each employee ( and if possible, and recommended, adult spouses),  a color according to their body mass index (BMI) and also assigns each employee and dependent as white for no tobacco use or black for tobacco use.

Tobacco use is  a very straight forward "black and white" issue.  Tobacco use causes death, but usually not before it causes years of expensive, debilitating and painful suffering.  Group Benefits Advisors' Employee Health Risk Assessment tool allows a business owner to tally up the number of employees and dependents that use tobacco so that the business owner can implement a program that encourages tobacco cessation. 

The more employees who smoke, chew or dip, the more likelihood of a serious health claim and loss of valuable employee productivity.  But since death from tobacco use is certain and only a matter of time, a single tobacco user among employees or their dependents is a major health risk. 

Body Mass Index is a simple calculation and is one of the best  measures of body fatness.  It is reliable in about 95% of adults. (The primary exceptions being athletes and body builders.) BMI  calculation requires only height and weight, and is a quick and reliable measure that has been found to be directly correlated with a number of obesity and overweight diseases and conditions. 

The calculation for BMI is very simple: weight divided by height. The concept is simple to comprehend: a 200 lb person that is 5'1" has a higher BMI than a 200 lb person that is 6'1" tall.  The higher the BMI, the more obese and at risk an individual is for a range of weight-related diseases and health conditions.  These weight related diseases include the following:

• High blood pressure 
• High cholesterol
• Type 2 diabetes
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Gallbladder disease
• Osteoarthritis
• Sleep apnea and respiratory problems
• Some cancers (breast, colon and endometrial)

And many of the above weight related conditions, such as diabetes, can cause a host of other diseases and conditions, such as blindness and nerve damage.  Weight, and obesity, is a critical public health and private business issue, and if your small business is typical of the general Texas population, then it affects over two thirds of your employees and their dependents.

Read on to learn more about the Employee Health Risk Assessment for Dallas Fort Worth Small Businesses…