McKesson's corporate wellness program saves money, gains accolades
SAN FRANCISCO — McKesson on Thursday announced it has been selected as a 2015 C. Everett Koop National Health Award recipient in recognition for the company’s employee health and wellness program. McKesson will be presented with the award at the HERO Forum on Sept. 30 at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center in Chicago.
Awarded by the Health Project and named in honor of Dr. C. Everett Koop, the former Surgeon General of the United States, the Koop Award recognizes health enhancement programs and requires strong documentation of both health improvement and cost savings.
“McKesson’s commitment to better health starts with our workforce and we’ve been striving to improve the health of our employee team since 2007,” McKesson’s EVP human resources Jorge Figueredo said. “Our health and wellness program successfully promotes the physical, mental and social wellbeing of our employees and their families. Although the focus is on improving health, we’re pleased that the wellness initiatives have created opportunities to lower health care costs for our company, our employees and their families.”
Offered to employees and spouses, McKesson’s health and wellness program is powered by Vitality and includes health risk assessments and screenings, educational tools, physical activities and prevention efforts. The program has had increased employee engagement each year since its inception in 2007 and has evolved from a payout for completed health assessments into a comprehensive health promotion program with an integrated incentive structure that rewards participants for healthy behaviors. Through Vitality employees engage in approximately 80 healthy activities each year.
“Successful organizations understand that employee health and well-being are enhanced when a culture of health is ingrained into the organization’s norms, values and beliefs,” Ron Goetzel, president and CEO of the Health Project, said. “McKesson Corporation has adopted effective and sustainable health promotion programs that help employees and their families improve their health. At the same time, these programs save money and provide high value on investment.”
Although the focus of the health and wellness program is on improving health, an independent research group from Harvard University estimated that McKesson’s return on investment for the annual program was approximately 30% for each dollar invested over the analysis period while significantly enriching McKesson’s overall benefits offering and corporate culture.
Additional achievements from the program include:
Over the three years of this analysis, engaged adult participants increased activity levels by 92%;
Since April 2012, 4,892 McKesson employees and 493 spouses reported attending 159,994 Weight Watchers meetings and reported a net weight loss of 24,759 pounds;
Pedometers are the most frequently used fitness device, with nearly 23,000 employee and spouse members, and more than 6.3 million recorded activities between 2011 and 2014;
Between 2011 and 2014, McKesson members took over 51 billion steps covering 25.6 million miles;
Company-sponsored events such as philanthropy fundraising walks encourage and reward employees;
In 2014, 44% of employees averaged 80.7 workouts per year. Spouses also demonstrated a robust commitment to physical activity as 29% of spouses averaged 82.6 workouts per year;
Employees that were “medium engaged” or “highly engaged” in the program spent between $916 to $1,238 less on medical expenses per employee in 2014 compared to “low engaged” employees in 2012 and 2013. This led to an overall saving of $4.7 million in medical costs for McKesson;
Between 2012 and 2014, a majority of members transitioned from the low engagers group to the medium or high engager groups. In 2012, there were 8,741 members in the low engager group. By 2014, this had decreased to 2,531. The high engager group doubled in size from 2,091 to 5,167; and
Employees self-reported that their on-the-job performance increased from 81.69% in 2012 to 85.34% in 2014. When this increase is converted into dollars using a conservative salary conversion method, total savings was nearly $7 million across both 2013 and 2014.