A San Antonio brokerage firm touts their success in helping a San Antonio school district reduce their medical spend by 40% by implementing ……….Drum Roll Please………..A wellness plan. We find this hard to believe.
Changing behavior is hard to do. Imagine telling Jose that his grandmother’s enchilada recipe he grew up on was bad for him! That’s akin to insulting his grandmother. Jose loves his grandmother.
How about Couch Potato Julie? Ah, potato chips with a supersized Dr. Pepper for breakfast is the only way to start the day.
Wellness programs are feel good programs. HR feels good because helping employees become healthier more productive employees is a noble goal. That’s HR’s goal, healthy and happy employees.
Al Lewis is an outspoken voice in health care and workplace wellness. He is the author of several books on these topics including Why Nobody Believes the Numbers: Distinguishing Fact from Fiction in Population Health. SOURCE: Interview with Al Lewis about Workplace Wellness Programs • Mike Rucker, Ph.D. (michaelrucker.com)
Al Lewis is an actuarial consultant that has long focused on challenging wellness and care management vendors to prove their value. He founded the “Disease Management Purchasing Consortium” and established a training and certification program for “critical outcomes report analysis.”
Al has been calling out the methodological carelessness and dirty tricks of wellness and care management vendors and health plans for years. SOURCE: Al Lewis calls workplace wellness programs “get well quick schemes” – Reward Health
A wellness plan for a public school district that saves 40% in health claim dollars? Naw, never happened……………..
