Wellness is part of the process to manage healthcare. It is not a stand alone "fix" to reduce costs. Plan design, strategic planning and management support is essential to successful healthcare management. It is a process that is ongoing.

• The four stages required for successful wellness programs are:
  
  
  • Health Risk Assessment (HRA): HRA's are lifestyle questions that are completed by the participant prior to or at the time of screening. They can be completed on the internet, electronic media or on paper.
    
    
  • Biometric Screening: This is done on site and could be a "finger stick" or a drawing of a vial of blood. As with any blood analysis, the most accurate is a result of a blood draw following a fasting period. A determination must be made prior to the screening as to which diseases we are trying to identify.
    
    
  • Intervention: The information from the HRA is combined with the results of the screening. This identifies the disease and lifestyle that puts a participant at risk. Because of the degree of severity of risk and employer cost restrictions, several alternatives have been made available for active intervention ranging from nurse visitations to smoking cessation clinics.
    
    
  • Communication/Education: Without interaction between the employee and the options available to the employee, change will be minimized. Employer commitment to providing access to options and encouragement will insure a successful wellness campaign.
    
    Some options are:
    
    
    • Diet - Health Coaching - Self-Help Guide Books - Employee meetings - Email - Payroll Stuffers - Newsletters - Incentive Plans
    
    The successful wellness plan will keep healthy employees healthy, moderately healthy employees from becoming chronically ill and those employees chronically ill with resources they need to keep from getting worse.