Small businesses get creative to cut health cost. Jean Bourgeois, right, CEO of Excelsas, walks with employee Cyndi Takacs as part of the company walking program. The program encourages health in her employees through walking.(Photo: Michael Mc. Elroy)Story Highlights. Small business have found creative, inexpensive ways to offer wellness programs. The Affordable Care Act offers extra incentives to companies for wellness programs. One company lets employees earn extra paid time off by walking more. Cyndi Takacs went the extra miles last year to earn additional paid time off, and she plans to do the same this year. She and other employees at Excelas, a medical consulting firm with 4. Cleveland, get one extra hour of paid time off for every 3. To meet the goal last year, she did laps around the parking lot at lunch, and she took the dogs out for an extra walk at night. Excelas also makes charitable donations based on the employees' walking milestones. The walking program is part of the company's wellness initiative, which also includes nutrition and stress- reduction programs. The law reinforces an employer's ability to provide wellness incentives so people are motivated to get healthier to lower their insurance costs, says Den Bishop, president of Holmes Murphy and Associates, an insurance brokerage firm in Dallas, and author of The Book on Healthcare Reform. He also works for ACAP Health, which helps employers get employees healthier. STORY: Small businesses wrestle with ACA's cost. STORY: SHOP for health care is help for small businesses. STORY: Small businesses can save with health care tax credit. Many companies offer screening programs to identify people at risk for chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and obesity, and most are interested in helping their employees lose weight and become more active, he says. Care Cost Health Lower Program Wellness ProgramThey tend to use free and inexpensive resources in their communities, such as local programs to help people quit smoking, lose weight or become more active, he says. Many small employers are struggling with both the cost of health insurance and the cost of wellness programs, and some companies are banding together to cut their costs on both, says Wally Gomaa, senior vice president of Holmes Murphy and Associates. He says it used to be that mostly big companies were willing to self insure; now, some smaller businesses are pooling their resources to form new private self- insurance pools. To join some of these pools, employers have to . Bigger is not always better . One day, her employees met at a grocery store and worked in teams to try to select healthy foods for a day's meals and snacks. Then their shopping carts were evaluated by a nutrition professional to see who made the most nutritious choices. The winning team members got gift cards to the grocery store, Bourgeois says. At the company's holiday party last week, she gave everyone on the staff inexpensive activity- monitor bands to track their activity. And she has done all this on a shoestring budget. She gives small gifts to speakers who come to the company to talk about health, nutrition, fitness and stress reduction, and she received a small local grant to fund some of the wellness activities. Care Cost Health Lower Program Wellness CoachLearn about wellness programs by reviewing the definition in. The program allows your employer or plan to. Other information about the health care law for. Nineteen percent of organizations have increased cost sharing for health care. It is important to provide a general wellness program to. Good Wellness Program Cost? Insurers' counteroffensive touts lower. Workplace wellness programs can lower health care costs. Workplace wellness programs can lower health care. Healthy Living wellness program.
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