Pittsburgh Business Group on Health facilitates biometric screening, health risk appraisals
PITTSBURGH, Pa., Feb. 12, 2009 — In an effort to enhance health and wellness efforts and control medical costs by preventing such chronic conditions as diabetes and heart disease, the Pittsburgh Business Group on Health has launched a new program to provide employees with information about their own health. With this information, employees can more proactively address and manage their health with their doctors.
In partnership with the St. Louis Area Business Coalition on Health, PBGH is making available health risk appraisal and biometric screening services to employees of its employer members as part of a group-purchasing program. Employer members of both business groups achieve greater cost savings for the program by pooling their membership. PBGH also benefits from the time and cost savings that accompany use of an established program. To ensure employees’ dependents can also receive the screenings, the program partners with LabCorp of America so that testing can be available off the employer’s work site at conveniently located labs throughout the region.
“By bringing these assessments to employees at the worksite and to their families at locations that are convenient for them, we are removing some of the obstacles that exist in getting this information,” said M. Christine Whipple, executive director of PBGH. “Employees cannot manage what they don’t know. This program is a first step in empowering them with the information they need to effectively manage their health and related costs.”
The health risk appraisal is a self-reported assessment of health with a personalized report as well as a summary for primary care physicians. With results of the HRA, employees can set personal goals for health improvement and discuss results with healthcare professionals.
The core biometric screening service includes worksite-based assessments for blood pressure, cholesterol (LDL, HDL and total), glucose, body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio. The standard service also provides immediate feedback with a written report and in-person explanation of results, as well as a summary report for the employee’s primary care physician.
“Over time, our eating habits, sedentary lifestyles and tobacco use, to name just a few, have created an unhealthy population that is in large part to blame for escalating health care costs,” said Whipple. “Just as it’s taken time to get to where we are today, it will take significant time and effort to reverse this trend, both in our health and in health care costs, but it’s an effort that has to be undertaken.”
Results from a 2007 survey of PBGH members showed that employers wanted a program through which they could offer employees biometric screening on a voluntary basis. Aware that the St. Louis coalition already had established such a program for their employer members, PBGH evaluated the St. Louis program and found its due diligence to be on par with its own, enabling it to avoid the time and expense in creating its own initiative and offer the program sooner rather than later. Following a vetting process that included 19 vendors, the St. Louis coalition chose beBetter Networks, a West Virginia-based health promotion and prevention services company to provide the program’s services.
Other features of the program include:
- The ability for employers to compare aggregate data for benchmarking and program effectiveness;
- Substantial service-level guarantees to assure quality delivery and results;
- A comprehensive range of supporting products and services available with participant volume pricing.
About the Pittsburgh Business Group on Health
Founded in 1981, the Pittsburgh Business Group on Health (PBGH) is a non-profit organization and business-only coalition representing more than 60 Employer Members, 800,000 employees, dependents and retirees, and $4 billion in health care expenditures. The organization strives to improve the delivery, cost and quality of health care through implementing and supporting quality initiatives, analyzing health care data and resources, and providing forums for exchange of ideas and viewpoints. Visit www.pbghpa.com for more information.
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