Consumer/Employer Health Awareness

Consumer/Employer
Health Awareness

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Background

MBGH has developed this community health awareness campaign through a partnership with CBS2 Chicago and more recently the Northeast Business Group on Health. The campaign has been supported by a number of grants which has allowed for the development of a series of TV vignettes focused on a variety of health topics such as cancer, COPD and diabetes. The initiative also provides resources from the national campaign, Choosing Wisely TM and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Outcomes

Employers are using this initiative as a health resource for their employees/families

  • Covered populations are more proactive about their health
  • Employees make better decisions about their health and health care
  • Employers find cost savings as a result of their covered populations making better lifestyle decisions
  • In 2015, MBGH and partners reduced rate of unnecessary pregnancies to 2%

 

Business Case for Employers

  • Many organizations currently don’t pay enough attention to the hidden costs of avoidable sick days and presenteeism — the cost of employees who are on the job but not fully functioning because of real illnesses and medical conditions, including asthma, seasonal allergies, arthritis, migraines, depression, back pain, gastrointestinal disorders and diabetes.1
  • Making the right medical decisions helps employers to reduce benefit costs.
  • The total cost of presenteeism in the United States is greater than $150 billion per year.2
  • Maternity care is the number one reason for hospitalization among most employee populations.
  • The highest cost for maternity care is when a pre-term infant (those born at less than 39 completed weeks of gestation) is treated in the neonatal intensive care unit.
  • The cost of cancer treatment is typically among the top three most costly conditions representing, on average, 12% of total medical expenses.3
  • Cancer is one of the leading causes of both short- and long-term disability.4

Project Goals

  • Increase awareness of Choosing Wisely Campaign to health care stakeholders in the Midwest.
  • To provide employers resources of the Choosing Wisely campaign.
  • To help physicians, patients and other health care stakeholders think and talk about overuse of health care resources.
  • To promote wise choices by clinicians in order to improve health care outcomes.
  • Increase awareness of patient-centered care that avoids unnecessary and even harmful interventions.
  • To help consumers become more empowered in partnering with their doctor to receive high quality care.

1Loeppke R. “Good Health Is Good Business,” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, May 2006, 533-7.
2Hemp P. “Presenteeism: At Work — But Out of It,” Harvard Business Review, October 2004, 49-58, 155.
3NBGH Employers Guide to Cancer Treatment and Prevention
4NBGH Employers Guide to Cancer Treatment and Prevention