Employer Managed Healthcare

Monday, 1 December 2008, 5:23

Question: Why is it the responsibility of employers to “join … efforts to prevent and treat these common and very serious conditions.“?

Even knowing that San Diego is in the heart of liberal loon country, I read the article anyway.  It was a smack on the United States health care system and on the cost of managing illnesses today.   For me, treating my diabetes is expensive in time and medications. 

But I do not consider it my employers responsibility to prevent and treat it. 

We know that excess weight exacerbates health problems such as high blood pressure and abnormal cholesterol levels in diabetes patients, often leading to heart disease and kidney failure, among other issues. Meanwhile, weight loss, even a modest amount, has helped people with diabetes achieve healthier, longer and more active lives.

Still, only 54 percent of U.S. employers offer at least one wellness program, including weight-loss programs, gym membership discounts, personal health coaching or a wellness newsletter.

Lets break down the last paragraph.

1) Wellness Programs, to include weight-loss.  The article doesn’t explain what that would entail.  Could it be personal couches, dietitians, what?

2) Gym Membership Discounts.  The YMCA in our local area has a $50 registration fee and $29 monthly draft.  You don’t need to make $1,000,000 salary  to get a gym membership.  Yet, I suppose assisting with the cost could be an incentive for someone to sign up, but how does an employer force one to go?

3) Personal Health Couching, or in my world a skinny dietitian telling me not to eat eggs.  Again, this is not explained in the article, but every person at my place of employment has a doctor – and isn’t that kind of his responsibility?  Or do they want the employer to force someone to go?  

4) Wellness Newsletter.  Now this is the biggest joke in the article.  You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.  We get a Wellness Newsletter and it goes from the mailbox into the trash.  Lotta good that’s going to be unless you again force me to read it.  Doesn’t think that’s going to happen.

The responsibility of the employer is to provide a work environment that is comfortable and profitable.  I don’t agree with them having to provide the above four items.  Yes, healthy employees are more productive, but yet again, all they can do is offer help, ie: my company’s newsletter, and then what?  Unless you force someone by threat, you can give them all the help but it wouldn’t work unless they accept it.

Nice thought – but this is not Nazi Germany (yet) and the government and employers don’t control the lives of their people 24/7.  

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3 Comments for “Employer Managed Healthcare”

  1. 1Leslie

    wrote on 1 December 2008 at 11:44

    This is very appropriate for something that my husband’s employer started doing. I didn’t get it at first, I thought our insurance company was sending the letters. Come to find out his employer has used information that was flagged from our insurance company. I’m a T1 diabetic so I got flagged. I ignored the letters and phone calls for a while, but they were persisitant. I finally decided to call the number to find out what this “thing” was all about. The nurse case manager told me it was just a way to help me understand my medicines and to send information about meds that my doctor may not be aware of. I was still saying “What the?????” An employer is not my doctor nor my insurance company. I do not like the fact that our insurance company is sharing my test results with this health management company. I don’t have to take part in it but I am still very unhappy about it. Guess it’s a sign of the times to come, huh?

    I just found your website last night and had a blast reading through it! I’m fairly new to blogging but am working to understand so forgive me if I screw up. I guess a blogsite doesn’t count as a website. I learn something new every day! Anyway, enjoy your perspective on many issues.

  2. 2Jo

    wrote on 2 December 2008 at 6:04

    I had the same thing happen with Tricare. I left it when I got a job and insurance through there. Then about 3 months after I was diagnosed as a diabetic, wham, the Army Hospital started calling me. I finally called them back and asked them how they knew I was a diabetic, since I wasn’t diagnosed under their care. She stuttered. I told her the only way she’d know is if she looked at my current medical data, which came from another doctor and violated the HIPA act. They never called back

  3. 3Redoubt

    wrote on 2 December 2008 at 16:07

    “The responsibility of the employer is to provide a work environment that is comfortable and profitable. I don’t agree with them having to provide the above four items. Yes, healthy employees are more productive, but yet again, all they can do is offer help, ie: my company’s newsletter, and then what? Unless you force someone by threat, you can give them all the help but it wouldn’t work unless they accept it.”

    Exceptionally well said, all of it.

    What we should be working for is a healthcare system that removes everyone and everything between us, the consumer, and the provider, our physicians. This includes but is not limited to: Government, employers and insurance.

    Our relationship with our healthcare providers has become far less personal since the early 90s and more intrusive. We should avoid allowing a ‘hive mind’ mentality to dictate what we eat and how we live.

    We spoke to this briefly here:
    http://sincityq.com/main/?p=59

    What we need is a personal declarartion of independence that says we have the right to live… and eat as we choose.

    Your tastes for food, likes and dislikes will undoubtedly differ from others but you have a right to live your life as you see fit, without an intrusive bureaucracy from any quarter.

    Great post Jo!

    Redoubt´s last blog post … Space Post