Central Virginia Health Network (CVHN) is an independent Care Management Organization established by leading healthcare providers in Virginia.
Our company specializes in health coaching and chronic care management, so we decided to put that experience to use in designing a wellness program for our own workforce of 110 employees across three states.
Our wellness initiative is a collaboration with our local provider Bon Secours Health System in Richmond, Va. To make it a manageable journey, we devised a three-year plan. Our goal was to increase employee participation in addressing key health risks, including prehypertension, overweight/obesity, and sedentary lifestyle. From the outset, we wanted an administrative platform that would be effective yet easy to manage.
Advantages of a Population Health Website
CVHN's human resources team enlisted senior management sponsorship and partnered with Bon Secours using its OneCommunity population health website that's linked to a set of resources and tools that feature a health risk assessment coupled with biometric screenings. Once employees are securely registered, they can log on to access their Personal Health Profile. They are also shown a dashboard which automatically updates their status as they participate in company-sponsored efforts. The dashboard contains useful tools for tracking health goals and interests, including an exercise log, nutrition diary and more.
Each individual's Personal Health Report provides details on how to achieve better health through lifestyle changes, along with customized content. This report also lets HR and employees track and manage incentives. Employees have the flexibility to structure rewards and incentives based on their objectives, which helps simplify program administration.
Incentives Play a Key Role
One noteworthy incentive we offer is a $500 contribution into a Flexible Spending Account for each employee who participates in the wellness program. Other incentives are tiered based on completion of a health risk assessment and biometric screening. The balance can be earned by taking part in onsite health education, completing an annual physical, participating in company-sponsored fitness events, tracking personal activity through FitBit integration, etc. These incentives have been enthusiastically received, and we have plans to add additional incentives in the future.
Online Engagement Makes a Difference
Since moving to the online platform, CVHN has seen employee participation skyrocket to 98 percent – far more than what we achieved using a paper-based system.
Here are some of the main lessons we've learned:
Participation increases dramatically when the online platform is easy to use – The OneCommunity platform has made it easy for HR to track employee participation and determine which incentives work best.
It's important to continuously test and refine incentives – OneCommunity lets us quickly see which incentives are most effective – at both the individual and company level. For example, when we introduced a $100 cash bonus for meeting health milestones, it was an immediate success with employees.
Employees enjoy seeing how their wellness efforts positively impact their salary and benefits – OneCommunity links to our payroll system, so employees can switch between systems to see how their health improvements are producing higher pay and lower premiums.
Incentivized Employees Get Healthier
One year after implementing the OneCommunity-based wellness program, our employees' tobacco use declined nearly 7 percent and the number of frequent exercisers increased 10 percent. There was a 14 percent improvement in the number of completed annual cholesterol checks – and an 18 percent improvement in the number of completed glucose tests.
Our workforce is clearly getting healthier – and there have been no increases in our company's health premiums. By making it simpler to track employee participation and incentive preferences, the OneCommunity platform has been the key to achieving these goals.
Gerard P. Filicko is senior vice president, clinical services at Central Virginia Health Network in Richmond, Va.
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