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AD Editorial Board

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
Christine Bustamante

National Co-Leader, Global Location and Expansion Services, State and Local Tax, KPMG LLP
Dan Levine

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

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

Principal, Crowe Horwath
Dennis Cuneo

Managing Partner , Fisher & Phillips
Eric Stavriotis

Senior Vice President, CBRE, Inc.
Gregory Burkart

Managing Director and Practice Leader, Site Selection & Business Incentive Advisory Services, Duff & Phelps, LLC
Jamie Lominack

Corporate Real Estate Manager, Michelin North America
John Morris

SIOR, Industrial Services Lead for the Americas, Cushman & Wakefield, Inc.
Josh Bays

Principal, Site Selection Group, LLC
Les Cranmer

Senior Managing Director, Savills Studley
Marc Beauchamp

Vice President & Partner, The CAI Global Group
Michael McDermott

Consulting Manager, Global Business Consulting, Cushman & Wakefield
Minah Hall

Managing Director, True Partners Consulting LLC
Scott Kupperman

Founder, Kupperman Location Solutions
Scott Redabaugh

Managing Director, JLL
Stephen Gray

CEO, Gray Construction
Thomas J. Stringer, Esq.

Managing Director & Practice Leader, Site Selection and Business Incentives Group, BDO USA
Tim Feemster

Managing Principal, Foremost Quality Logistics

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.