The construction industry as a whole has faced challenges in embedding wellness into their overall health care programs. Employees are often split into many “sub-companies” operating across the country, field employees speak varied languages and have differing beliefs relative to health and insurance, and the rising cost of health care premiums have left many unable or unwilling to participate in an insurance benefit.

Over the past three years I’ve been deeply involved in health care reform at PC Construction, with the ultimate goal of increasing the health and well-being of the PC Construction community while attempting to recognize cost savings within our insurance program as a result. There has been a lot of interest in our new program since we rolled it out because it really is making a measurable difference in people’s lives and in the bottom line. High cholesterol among employees, for example, is down 16%, obesity down 5%, and hypertension is down almost 2%. Last year our actual employee per month cost decreased 1.1% and the year prior it was up just 1.0%. That is, in essence, three years with no cost increase. While we are not yet saving enough to counteract premium increases due to the rate of national health care inflation, we are making a serious dent and headed in the right direction.

An associate recently asked if I would write of my experience, findings, the process, and final program we designed. That story will follow in several future posts to our blog.

Click here to read Part 2 of this Health and Wellness blog series.