Employee Wellness Program (2014 LGAA)

City of Batavia
County: Genesee County
Population: 10,001 to 50,000
City Hall: (585) 345-6330

The City of Batavia is self insured for active employees, spouses and retiree health insurance. Employee benefit costs - particularly health insurance - have a significant impact on the City's budget with little to no control over costs. In order to gain more control over rising health insurance costs, the City made a complete shift in the way it looked at health insurance. The new program focuses on influencing employee behavior and stresses preventative care; thereby minimizing the development of serious health conditions and risky behaviors which ultimately lead to higher health care costs.

The City's wellness program is a confidential program which is administered through a third party. The intent of the program is to build a culture where employees engage in a healthy lifestyle in which healthy employees stay healthy and at-risk employees improve their health. Employees and their spouses have the option to take an annual screening of four modifiable risk factors: fasting glucose, LDL cholesterol, blood pressure and nicotine use – all potential causes of serious health problems. Employees and spouses who participate in the program and achieve and exceed identified results have the opportunity to earn 2.5% credits to either reduce their health care contribution or lower their out of pocket deductible. The employee and spouse, if both participate, can achieve a maximum of 25% discount on their health insurance premium, or pay as little as 5% for health insurance.

Over the past five years the City has been able to include nearly all employees in the wellness program, and over the past three years performance measurements have shown significant improvements not only in participant health, but also decreasing health care costs. Over the past three years the City has been able to detect, treat and prevent over $1.5 million of potential health care claims. With respect to health care costs, the City has seen impressive accomplishments in managing what is regularly considered "unmanageable costs." Since 2010, Batavia has enjoyed an annual increase in healthcare premiums of approximately 4%.

The City wellness program demonstrates how municipalities can influence employee behavior by stressing preventative care, resulting in methods that can control skyrocketing healthcare costs for the short- and long- term. Effectively managing health care costs provides for better control over a significant aspect of the City's budget, and improves employee health and long term performance.