Linking health risks, cost; Multi-year study aims to understand the potential payoff of prevention and risk reduction

A recently published study from StayWell Health Management and Towers Watson can help you address these essential questions. The study, "Association Between Changes in Health Risk Status and Changes in Future Health Care Costs: A Multi-employer Study," was published in the November 2012 issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The findings demonstrate that when risks change, costs follow. But over time, focusing workplace health improvement initiatives on population-wide prevention will deliver greater financial results than focusing on helping a specific segment of your population reverse or reduce existing health risks. In addition, the study showed that the initial financial payoff begins to accrue after just one year. * A long-term solution is better than a quick fix. In this study, a greater immediate savings was realized from reducing health risks for people with chronic conditions than for the average employee. After controlling for differences in age, gender and company, those with chronic conditions who reduced health risks had a five-times lower cost burden compared to those without a chronic condition. In addition, those with chronic conditions who added health risks doubled the cost burden compared to those without chronic conditions.