A Corporate Wellness Plan for Small Businesses in Dallas Fort Worth, Texas

Group Benefits Advisors, an employee benefits consultant and group health insurance agency in Dallas Fort Worth, Texas has a remedy that improves the health of area businesses with less than 500 employees.  It is a Corporate Wellness Program for small businesses that is based on a simple truth: Healthy employees are more valuable than unhealthy employees, since healthy employees are more productive and have fewer medical insurance claims. 

In a small business, where there is less "bench strength" than in larger businesses, the loss of a key employee can have a huge impact on the firm.  And a single large insurance claim can have a major negative impact on the company's group health insurance rates for years to come.  Yet small businesses typically do not invest in programs that help improve the health of their employees.

Small businesses make the mistaken assumption that their group health insurance plan helps keep their employees well.  In fact, only 4% of  our country's health care spending go towards prevention of diseases, and 96% go toward detection and treatment. 

The sad fact is that 75% of all diseases are preventable. Employers faced with ever-rising group health insurance premiums can no longer sit back and do nothing to improve the health of their employees.  Employers must hold their employees and their dependent spouses accountable for maintaining and improving their own health.

Today, preventable lifestyle diseases are an epidemic.  According to the Center for Disease Control, adult diabetes is now the sixth largest cause of death, affecting over 21 million Americans, or about 10% of the adult workforce  Diabetes is increasing at a rate of 5% per year.  There is about a one in 8 chance that any adult employee or their spouse has diabetes.  Diabetes costs businesses over 132 billion dollars a year.

Obesity is the primary cause of diabetes.  Over two thirds of Texans are overweight, and almost 25% are obese.  Weight loss and exercise programs can control most cases of obesity.  Yet such programs are not covered in a group health insurance plan.  Weight loss and exercise programs also have positive impact on hypertension and cholesterol, which can contribute to heart failure, stroke, and heart attack and other circulatory diseases.

Tobacco use is still unacceptably high, in spite of being unacceptable in the workplace.  Tobacco use causes cancer, emphysema, heart disease and strokes, and eventually death.  Yet, not a dollar of an employer's health insurance premium goes towards helping an employee quit smoking or using tobacco.

Group Benefits Advisors' corporate wellness program is a low/no cost program for small businesses in Dallas Fort Worth that is easily to implement and will have a positive impact on their employees' and their spouses' health.  The more years that an employer group is on the plan, the healthier their workforce becomes.

The program is paid for by the savings from a slight increase in the annual deductible for employees.  Those employees who make changes in their lifestyle (lose weight, exercise, stop smoking, etc.), are "rewarded" with contributions toward their medical expenses; those that don't pay more for their health expenses or make a decision to leave the company.  Employees who exercise, lose weight or stop smoking also are reimbursed for the programs after they meet specific goals.

The Corporate Wellness plan puts fairness back in the company's employee benefits plan by making personal health accountability a priority in the workplace.  Employees and dependent spouses who make improvements in their overall health actually spend less than they would without the program, as well they should. 

Employees and dependent spouses who choose to ignore their own health and that eventually cost their employers more in lost productivity and higher medical insurance premiums end up paying more for their health care expenses in this program.  Or they choose to leave the company where their position can assumably be replaced by someone who is willing to be more accountable for their own health. 

The plan is non-discriminatory; employees with medical issues that prevent them from participating in the plan are exempted, but are still required to enroll in alternate programs such as a stress reduction program, etc.

Long term studies have shown that adding a corporate wellness program to a compay's employee benefits plan can have a 400% return on each dollar spent.  By keeping it inexpensive and  simple to implement, now even small employers in Dallas Fort Worth, Texas can benefit from Group Benefits Advisors Corporate Wellness Program.

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For more information about Group Benefits Advisors' Corporate Wellness Program and for a no-obligation employee benefits consultation, email Mike Chapman or call, (214) 764-6315.