Grealy-Thorpe Op-ed Spotlights Value of Employee Wellness Programs

In an op-ed this week in the Huffington Post, HLC President Mary R. Grealy and Dr. Kenneth Thorpe, chair of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease make a case for the value of workplace wellness programs, arguing that they are “critical weapons” in the war against chronic illness.

The Grealy-Thorpe commentary counters a study quoted in the Associated Press this week which argues that employee wellness programs are merely shifting healthcare costs away from hospitalizations toward outpatient treatment and pharmaceuticals.  Grealy and Thorpe cite specific examples in which innovative initiatives to encourage healthy behavior among employees have generated significant per-employee health savings.  They wrote, “The bottom line is that these employee wellness programs need to be encouraged. They make sense at a societal level, understanding that better health in the workplace is critical if we’re to make progress in the fight against chronic diseases that eat up more than 80 cents of every health care dollar we spend in this country.”

The full Huffington Post op-ed can be read here