Leverage Data to Strengthen Your Wellness Program

Good data offers the best information for corporate wellness managers to create and drive worksite wellness programs, policies and incentives. Getting the right kind of data and knowing how to obtain the appropriate data is an important component of your wellness program.

In most mid-to large-sized organizations, data sources can be found in-house through human resources, benefits, occupational health, safety, risk management and employee assistance programs. External sources such as third-party medical claims administrators or vendors who provide health risk appraisals, biometric screenings, health coaching, online activity courses or incentive programs are also great sources for data.

When making a data request, give consideration to the scope of the request -- timeframe, target population and geographic location. For instance, requesting three years of aggregate, organizational level medical claims will provide a better year-to-year trend of specific health claims than simply requesting data for the past year. 

Information technology applications can gather all the necessary data into statistical formats that are helpful to HR and benefits professionals. The data generated can be leveraged to provide decision makers with actual numeric values to achieve specific health management goals, such as:

• Analyzing medical claims to assess gaps in a population’s health care so that wellness programs can be developed to target these areas.
• Assessing changes in health risk factor levels and medical costs associated with these risks.
• Calculating the cost-avoidance that a wellness program has produced over a set time period.
• Analyzing the financial viability of a proposed wellness center expansion.
• Demonstrating to senior management that improving employees’ health has also improved the organization’s health cost management.
• Assessing current trends in the prevalence of health risk factors and chronic conditions to determine the potential impact of targeted population health management initiatives on avoiding future medical and lost productivity costs.

There are a number of analytical tools that can help you develop a comprehensive, customized wellness strategy and evaluate the results of your program. Gathering all relevant data from reliable, quantifiable sources will help you leverage information to drive programs, policies and incentives. Wellness Workdays helps organizations gather data prior to implementing a wellness program. We use the data to develop programs that target a population's needs and interests. Contact us to find out how we can help you gather and analyze data for your wellness program.

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Visit Wellness Workdays for more information about our worksite wellness programs.