Wellness Programs and Employee Ownership

From "Employee Ownership Case Studies"

Pizzagilli Construction is one of the nation´s largest employee-owned contractors offering general contracting, construction, construction management, and design/build services to private and public clients on projects of all sizes. The 100% ESOP company employs about 1000 people. The company pays for preventive care when provided by an in-network physician.

To encourage ongoing wellness, if employees complete specific wellness activities the company adds money into a "Healthy Awards Account." If employees exhaust their CIGNA Choice Fund, they can use this to cover some of the plan deductible and coinsurance costs. Employees can also choose to use these funds at any time to cover other qualified expenses such as eyeglasses and over-the-counter medications. All of the unused balance, without limit, rolls over to the next year. Healthy Awards of up to $400 or $500 for employees and dependent spouses are given to cover the employee share of the costs of health care if they do any of the following:

• Comprehensive health review ($100): After biometric screening and health history/risk assessment (free), employees can meet with the Marathon Health coach to review the data and set goals and steps to achieve them.
• Preventive care ($150): This includes seeing a primary care physician for a routine checkup or screening (mammogram, colonoscopy, etc.). Costs are 100% covered.
• Follow up with Heath Coach ($150): Employees who follow up at least six months after the comprehensive health review to assess progress and concerns can get this reward if they are able to show measurable improvements.
• Routine check-up and labs for spouse ($50)
• On-line health risk assessment ($50)

When the company shifted out of a PPO plan to one in which employees take a more active role in the health care management, the purpose was not to shift costs to employees. Instead, it was to give employees a better understanding, and financial incentives, to manage their own health care better, both financially and physically. Pizzagilli Senior Vice President Mike Sessions says that "a lot of health and wellness programs are put in place with a focus on immediate ROI. We opted to take the long-view and put in a program that focused on our people. Of course, we believed the programs would someday have a positive financial impact, but we also knew there were factors we couldn't measure such as improvement in morale, absenteeism, and improved sense of overall well-being."

He went on to point to a couple of examples, with data from the health coaches (the data are provided to the company but do not identify individuals). "One employee knew he was overweight but learned during biometric screening that his blood pressure was 142/91, total cholesterol equaled 221, and his triglycerides were over 500. He was determined to engage our health coaches to improve his health. After nine health coaching sessions he lost 13 pounds and made improvements in other health statistics—his blood pressure is 123/90, LDL is 107, and his triglycerides are 132. Another overweight employee learned in biometric screening that her LDL was 170. She engaged our health coaches and has lost 24 pounds and her LDL is now 100."

Sessions says "Where is the immediate ROI for these two employees? How much money did the company save that year in these two cases? In these two cases we have what I'll call immediate employee ROI rather than immediate company ROI. Maybe the company avoided a heart attack or other health complications down the road—maybe, and maybe not."

Pizzagilli has saved money on the program, Sessions says. "It has come as a bit of a surprise to me, but our employee/month cost has not increased in nearly three years. We estimate this has saved the company from a cost increase of 10% per year—quite dramatic. I certainly didn't expect such dramatic savings so quickly, but am pleased our long-view produced more immediate company ROI results. Being an employee owned company, savings like these are important to every employee's stock value." But he says it is the long-view that really matters. "Striving to meaningfully improve the lives of our employees has had a measurable impact on ROI and numerous immeasurable impacts on personal ROI. I hope other construction companies will join us in taking the lead in improving the collective health and wellness of our construction professionals."