Targeting Family Health

A major agricultural company is taking health screenings out of the workplace and on the road, pushing employee spouses to get tested in the latest approach to controlling runaway insurance costs.

Screenings and wellness programs are a common way for employers to curb rising health care costs, but now seed and chemicals maker Syngenta AG is extending that idea to family members. Syngenta screened more than 700 employee spouses at 52 U.S. sites since March through a rolling health clinic aboard a 40-foot RV, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The program was started after the Swiss company noted that spouses and domestic partners had higher health insurance claims than the employees, the Journal reports. Two years ago, Syngenta found that average medical claims for spouses were 30 percent higher than for employees, or $728 higher on average. Targeting workers' partners makes Syngenta's program unique and one of the latest approaches employers are using to control their workers' health care costs. The program is voluntary.

"You can only change lifestyle and behavior when employees and their spouses really want to do it," Syngenta North American executive Valdemar Fischer told the Journal.

Syngenta was offering employee programs before it extended the screenings to spouses. The company says it is controlling growth of its health care costs by offering incentives to its employees, the Journal reports. Workers collect up to $250 if they take part in health assessments, wellness programs, and exercise classes.

Earlier this year, some companies that have extensive employee-wellness programs met with President Obama to share their ideas on using preventative programs. Companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft Corp., and Safeway Inc. say they saved millions through preventative health care and wellness plans. Safeway, in particular, is held up as a model for encouraging worker fitness, providing incentives to its employees who take care of their health. President Obama even mentioned the company's initiatives on a recent radio talk show interview.

In fact, prevention has been a mantra of a number of big companies, and yet it's largely absent from the health reform debate in Washington. While politicians laud the companies that sponsor such programs there's not a major push to add government incentives for these type of programs.