Biometric Screenings can Save Money and Lives
More and more employers are offering their employees Biometric Screenings as part of their wellness programs.
Why are they offering this benefit? Well, to encourage their employees to make healthy choices, to help control health care costs, and to ultimately improve productivity.
Biometric screens are quick and accurately give someone a snapshot of their health. More importantly, they can detect potential health risks and keep people healthy.
Here is what to expect:
There will be a dedicated day and location for clinicians to come into the office or workspace to perform these screenings.
One at a time, employees will have their vitals taken; height, weight, waist circumference, and BMI measurements recorded; and a finger prick will be used to draw blood. With this drawn blood, cholesterol, glucose, and triglycerides can be measured.
Some blood tests provide results immediately, while some are sent back to the lab for processing. But once this information is received, these healthcare professionals will provide detailed information on overall health status and things to be on the pay attention to.
Common diseases or conditions that can be identified on biometric screens include:
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Cardiovascular disease
- High blood pressure
- Risk of sleep apnea, stroke, or pre-diabetes
This information benefits both the employer and the employee.
Wellness Programs
In addition to the biometric screens, the employer may also offer a more developed and in-depth wellness program to help employees tackle their weaknesses. Information from these biometric screens can help to build the best wellness program for your employees.
Fitness centers, reimbursement for gym memberships, coaching and counseling, and nutritional assistance are all examples of ways to help improve employee health and wellness, allowing them to work on the items that came back as risks according to the biometric screen.
The employer then benefits from having a happy, healthy worker who feels good at work, is fit to do the job, and operates at a high level of productivity.
At the next scheduled biometric screening, each individual can compare their results to their previous numbers. Who doesn’t love a little friendly competition?
Sadly, all other illnesses and medical conditions put aside, obesity itself costs companies with 1,000 employees around $277,000 per year, including medical costs and absenteeism.
If we start to add in other chronic health conditions that arise from unhealthy behaviors, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, and physical inactivity, the cost to U.S. employers jumps up to $36.4 billion a year because of employees missing work.
And then looking at the cost of all illnesses-related loss of productivity combined (including the above conditions but also others such as cancer, the flu, and other illnesses) illness-related we jump up to $530 billion per year!
What if something as simple as a biometric screen could save you in health care costs and loss of productivity? Do your part today and add biometric screenings to your employee benefit package.
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