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Aaron Ahlburn

Managing Director and Senior Director, Research, JLL
Amy Gerber

Executive Managing Director, Business Incentives Practice, Cushman & Wakefield
Bill Luttrell

Senior Locations Strategist, Werner Global Logistics, Werner Enterprises
Bradley Migdal

Senior Managing Director, Business Incentives Practice, Cushman & Wakefield, Inc.
Brian Corde

Managing Partner, Atlas Insight
Dan Levine

Practice Leader, Location Strategies and Economic Development, Oxford Economics, Inc.
Dan White

Senior Economist, Moody's Analytics
Dean J. Uminski, CEcD

Partner, Crowe Horwath
Dennis Cuneo

Partner , Fisher & Phillips
Eric Stavriotis

Senior Vice President, Advisory & Transaction Services, CBRE, Inc.
Gregory Burkart

Managing Director and City Leader, Site Selection & Incentives Advisory , Duff & Phelps, LLC
H. Robert Boehringer, III

Managing Director, Global Location & Expansion Services, KPMG
Josh Bays

Principal, Site Selection Group, LLC
Joshua Wright

VP, Economic and Workforce Development, Emsi
Kate Crowley

Principal & Negotiated incentives Practice Leader, Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP
Les Cranmer

Senior Managing Director, Savills Studley
Marc Beauchamp

President & CEO, The CAI Global Group
Margy Sweeney

Founder and CEO, Akrete, Inc.
Minah Hall

Managing Director, True Partners Consulting LLC
Paul Naumoff

Principal, National Director of Tax Credits & Incentives Advisory Services, EY Global/Americas
Scott Kupperman

Founder, Kupperman Location Solutions
Stephen Gray

CEO, Gray Construction

Reducing Employee Health Insurance Costs Through Wellness Programs

Including wellness programs as part of employee health benefits can help reduce overall insurance costs to employers.

Phillip M. Perry, Staff Editor, Area Development

Web Exclusive/Feb 09

Cost shifting will likely remain a vital tool for employers looking to control health insurance premiums. After decades of use, however, the technique may be approaching a point of diminishing returns. Today's employers are paying greater attention to programs that keep people healthy and encourage faster recovery when they do get sick.

"While the usual cost sharing efforts are still very common, [our] survey shows that employers are seeing they are not always the most effective answer," says Sally Natchek, senior director of research at the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP) in Brookfield, Wisconsin. "That's why there is a growing trend toward disease management programs which take an integrated approach toward working with individuals who are or may be at risk for chronic conditions, among the most prevalent and costly of illnesses in the United States." These kinds of efforts put more responsibility on the individual to monitor his or her lifestyle choices. And while such programs increase work force productivity, their main benefit is that they result in a healthier work force.

The Kaiser survey finds that more than half of all firms offering health benefits also provide at least one of seven wellness programs: weight loss programs, gym membership discounts or on-site exercise facilities, smoking cessation programs, personal health coaching, classes in nutrition or healthy living, Web-based resources for healthy living, or wellness newsletters.