iAtoday

Health and wellbeing | Seeing clearly to manage risks effectively

Group Insurance March 21, 2024
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Companies can obtain a comprehensive overview of employee health and raise awareness about major potential issues.

 

The number of people unable to meet all their healthcare needs is on the increase in Canada. According to Statistics Canada1, in 2021, 7.9% of the Canadian population aged 16 and over reported being unable to meet all their health needs. This represents a 55% increase compared to 2018, when the proportion was 5.1% of the Canadian population.

Meanwhile, in recent years, there have been major shifts in supply and demand for healthcare plans, highlighting the financial challenges faced by plan sponsors, who must strike the right balance between the coverage they offer and the cost of maintaining suitable workplace benefits.

This underscores why it’s important for companies to have a clear picture of employee health and wellbeing and identify actions they can take to have a positive impact on overall employee wellness.

 

Seeing clearly

As part of our Well-BalancedTM program, our health risk assessment questionnaire measures modifiable behaviours and promotes health and lifestyle awareness and engagement. The tool allows group insurance plan members to assess their level of risk in nine health-related areas:

  • personal health
  • physical fitness
  • nutrition
  • alcohol and tobacco use
  • sleep
  • stress management
  • work environment
  • lifestyle
  • financial health

Employees who complete the questionnaire receive a personalized assessment that identifies risk factors on which they can take action. They also receive improvement strategies, resources, and are able to track their progress, all of which promote awareness and engagement.

 

A targeted campaign

Employers can also use the questionnaire to further engage their staff in health and wellness issues. A health risk assessment campaign provides an overview of risk factors within the organization, evaluates how well existing initiatives are working, and helps forecast costs more effectively.

The campaign relies on three components:

  • Diagnosis

Companies receive the overall anonymized results, providing a broad overview of their specific situation.

  • Identifying risk factors

Plan sponsors can use these results to identify their organization’s specific health risks and needs. This makes it easier to target initiatives for a health and wellness program.

  • Setting priorities

Plan sponsors can also use the data to zero in on the most important risk factors and modifiable lifestyle habits that drive up healthcare costs. The questionnaire also measures employees’ willingness to make lifestyle changes.

 

Getting started

Once employers have a clear picture of their employees’ health and issues, we can support them in developing and launching initiatives that will have a real impact on staff health and wellbeing.

 

We will send a communiqué to group insurance plan administrators on March 25.

See the French version of the communiqué.

 

Would you like to learn more about how we can help your client implement and promote a campaign to better understand employee health and wellbeing? Talk to your account executive.

 

1 Unmet health care needs by sex and age group (Statistics Canada)

 

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