5 Minutes Can Change Employee Health

Carrie’s story is one of thousands of “lightbulb moments” we encounter as our patients begin their journey to lasting health improvement. We partner with employers across the U.S. to serve over 360,000 patients, improve the health of workforces, and reduce healthcare costs. One of the first steps is to offer biometric screenings to understand the health risks affecting each organization.

“I went to the health center at work for my annual biometric screening and discovered I was in the risk category for cholesterol and prediabetes. My results from the center were a wake-up call. I am a single mother who had already survived breast cancer – I want to be in good shape so I can be around longer for my daughter. I did not want to jeopardize my health any longer and I knew I had the power to change.” – Carrie, Marathon Health patient, employee of Great-West Financial, and winner of Healthy Like Me.

Biometric Screenings

Mass biometric screenings are an effective way to engage your employees in their own health and allows your organization to stratify major health risks in the population. From there, you can target your efforts to reduce these risks, lower healthcare claims costs, and create a sustainable culture of health.

A biometric screening is a quick finger stick blood test and measure of height, weight, Body Mass Index (BMI), and blood pressure. The biometric screening produces results in just five minutes and helps your employees better understand their health. They will learn how much fat (or cholesterol) and how much sugar (or glucose) is in their blood, their height and weight, and a calculation of BMI, blood pressure, body fat, and waist circumference.

Biometric screenings, combined with the results from health risk assessments and existing health claims data, allows us to risk-stratify your overall employee population and strategize for health improvement.

“My biometric screening showed that I was obese and my cholesterol was extremely high. This was an eye-opener, as it helped me understand that I was over-eating and choosing unhealthy foods.” – Jessica, Marathon Heath patient, employee of C&S Wholesale Grocers, and winner of Healthy Like Me.

Engaging Your Employees for Real Health Improvement

When it comes to health, ignorance isn’t bliss. When your employees understand their health risks, they are empowered to engage and make lasting health improvements. Across our book of business, we’ve found that employee health engagement is higher, especially among the high risk and chronic condition population, when organizations offer or incentivize mass biometric screening events. In fact, mass biometric screenings lead to 62 percent patient engagement with their health center versus 46 percent at health centers that do not hold mass biometric screenings.

After awareness comes action, and employees at organizations with biometric screenings make significant health progress on those biometric risk factors. Employers who offer mass biometric screenings or incentivized screenings see a 12 percent increase in employees making significant health progress.

Knowledge is Power

Following a biometric screening, employees can meet with the onsite health coach to review their results, learn their risk factors, and develop a personalized health improvement plan. This plan will act as a roadmap for short-term and long-term health improvement goals, and encourages employees to follow-up with their medical provider. If your organization has a worksite health center, the screening is a great way to boost utilization and engagement, as well as a motivator for employees to take full advantage of the health education resources and wellness programs offered.

We launched a personalized health report, called MyHealth Report, designed to further engage our patients in their health, encourage utilization of health center services, and drive health improvements. This report presents a patient’s individual Wellness Score , which is based on their biometric screening and health risk assessment survey results. From blood glucose and cholesterol to eating habits and stress, the individual biometric and wellness markers help employees understand their health. The results in their report will offer guidance to help them celebrate when they’re right on target, and set goals for areas where they want to improve their health.

Remember, health engagement leads to health improvement, so we were thrilled to see 95 percent of our customers’ patients and staff engaged with MyHealth Report within the first six weeks of availability. Similarly, as your employees take charge of their health, you too can understand the health risks facing your employee population.

Knowing the most prevalent health risks in your organization helps you develop an effective plan to provide focused educational tools and support for these conditions, as well as make cultural changes in the workplace to reduce these risks so that employees like Carrie can improve their health, and ultimately their future:

“I am eating differently, cut out most processed foods, and have drastically reduced sugar and processed carbohydrates. I also workout 3-4 times a week. Now, I have completely turned things around. I’m no longer pre-diabetic, I’ve reduced my cholesterol, and I’ve lost 35 pounds! I feel confident, energetic, and overall fantastic.” – Carrie, Marathon Health patient, employee of Great-West Financial, and winner of Healthy Like Me.