Public health officials in Georgia are embarking on an ambitious worksite wellness project, hoping to develop a standardized wellness program that can be replicated at different worksites throughout the state.

"We are trying to answer the question: How [do] you develop a comprehensive worksite wellness program and then make it feasible for implementation across the state?" explains Dr. Kimberly Redding, senior director of the Office of Healthy Behaviors, a branch of the Georgia Department of Human Resources, Division of Public Health.

The Georgia Model Worksite Wellness Project is a first-year pilot program run by OHB. Launched in January, the program involves three employers with access to free wellness benefits. State officials contracted with wellness provider Longitude Health to work directly with the employers. The state oversees the vendor contract and provides ongoing support, which allows for consistency of programming and implementation across all worksites, Redding says.

The program helps the employers offer robust wellness benefits that they might not otherwise be able to afford. For the first year of the project, OHB has budgeted $95,000 for the vendor contract. Additional investments include staff time and health education materials already available in-house.

New Jersey-based Longitude Health was selected through a competitive bidding process. The state pays the costs of the services provided by the wellness provider. The Georgia Department of Human Resources and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded the pilot program.

'A way to jump-start wellness'

"We wanted to do a wellness program for awhile, but it's such a big endeavor, and we really did not know which direction to take," says Robin McBeth, HR director at The Methodist Home for Children & Youth, one of the employers in the pilot program.

The Macon-based organization is a residential treatment facility for children who are in the custody of the Department of Family Services. The 137-year-old institution, which is located in central Georgia, provides a residential-based program, foster care and outpatient services.

When McBeth and her team heard about the state's pilot program on wellness, "we saw it as a way to jump-start a wellness program, given that we did not have the budget to start a comprehensive wellness program," she says.

Equally important, the nonprofit was seeing higher health claims costs among its employee population. McBeth believes that being in the pilot program will give the organization the needed structure to implement a wellness program.

The other two employers in the program are Peach County Board of Commissioners, located in Fort Valley, Ga., and Cemex, a cement manufacturing plant, located in Clinchfield, Ga.

Under the pilot program, employers are able to provide workers with a comprehensive health risk assessment delivered online or on paper, one-on-one health guidance from professionals and online health tools that encourage healthy behaviors.

The Macon campus houses a state-of-the-art wellness center, where people can work out. "We only have a handful of employees who use it on a regularly basis," says Amanda B. Morgan, benefit coordinator at the facility. Like most U.S. companies, "we have a sedentary group of employees, but we just needed to find ways to motivate them," Morgan says.

The services in the pilot program have given "us the boost we need to go forward with a wellness program," she notes. The facility has created a wellness team and issued a survey on incentives and healthy behavior.

"We wanted to find out what would appeal to our employees. We have a beautiful campus here, so we might start a walking group. Also, we asked whether workers wanted to see healthier choices in the dinning hall," Morgan says. The Methodist Home employs about 250 employees, and nearly 170 employees are involved in the new state-funded wellness program.

Employers in the pilot program have written agreements with the state that their organizations and workers will be fully engaged in the process. The state officials hope to add a few more sites every year.

Hatching a long-term plan

The architects of the program realize that each worksite is different. Some employers will need assistance with health risk assessments to decide the health-risk levels of their employees, and then support specific programs and intervention for those employees based on their risk assessment.

For example, wellness efforts may include establishing a smoke-free workplace policy. To support workers who want to quit smoking and comply with such a policy, resources like the Georgia Tobacco Quit Line are available, explains Dr. Redding.

Additionally, employers may need guidance on instituting a program that allows workers to use a portion of their lunch time for physical activity, or developing a policy that bans unhealthy foods and snacks from meetings, cafeterias and vending machines.

State data shows that Georgians face a high prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity and tobacco use. The state's public health division employs a worksite wellness consultant who works with employers on their wellness initiatives.

Of course, there are employers in Georgia with wellness programs, but some might only offer a few components of a wellness program. "Our goal is to take those worksites and help them to expand their current efforts into a more comprehensive program by providing them with additional tools, technical assistance and guidance." Redding says. "We think it's important that employers develop polices and environments that encourage and support their workers in adopting and maintaining healthy behaviors."

For years, the discussion in corporate America about wellness programs has focused on proving the return on investment, says Tracy Korman, CEO of Longitude Health, the wellness vendor for the program. "State officials are not wedded to the ROI battle cry, but instead see doing nothing as a terrible ROI, because it's expensive paying for higher health claims and suffering through high absentee rates."

Cardiovascular disease

•  The average charge per CVD hospitalization was $30,700 in 2006.

•  Total hospital charges for CVD increased by over $1.6 billion between 2002 and 2006, from $2.8 billion to $4.4 billion.

•  The cost of CVD in Georgia in 2006 is estimated at $10.5 billion, which includes direct health care costs and lost productivity from morbidity and mortality (indirect costs).

Diabetes

•  In 2006, there were 15,593 hospitalizations for which diabetes was the principal diagnosis, resulting in over $288 million hospital charges and about 78,346 days, or 215 years, of hospital stay.

•  Also in 2006, 19,459 emergency room visits in Georgia were attributable to diabetes.They required urgent care and cost more than $3.2 million in medical care charges.

•  The annual cost of diabetes due to medical care, lost productivity and premature death is estimated to be over $5.1 billion.

•  The health care cost for a person with diabetes is approximately $11,744 per year, compared with $5,095 per year for a person of comparable age and sex without diabetes.

Obesity

•  The annual cost of obesity in Georgia is estimated at $2.1 billion ($250 per Georgian each year), which includes direct health care costs and lost productivity from disease, disability and death (indirect costs).

Tobacco

•  $1.8 billion in health care costs among adults 18 years and older.

•  $3.4 billion in lost productivity costs among adults 35 years and older.

Arthritis

•  Total hospital charges for arthritis exceeded $854 million in 2006, with the average length of stay lasting about 4 days.

Cancer

•  In Georgia, cancer costs in 2004 were approximately $4.6 billion: $1.7 billion for direct medical costs, $406 million for indirect morbidity costs and $2.5 billion for indirect mortality costs.

Source: The State of Georgia