Hooksett, N.H., June 21, 2012 — With summer coming, many employers are starting to prepare for their upcoming annual benefits enrollment. As you review and consider changes to your benefits offerings, be sure to consider improving your wellness program‘s reach and effectiveness by promoting it early, during annual benefits enrollment.

According to Kaiser News, Johnson & Johnson estimated that in nearly 17 years it has saved almost $250 million. Thanks to their wellness program, more than half the company‘s workers stopped smoking and two-thirds reduced their blood pressure.

A recent Choicelinx study indicated a 28-66% completion rate when the optional Health Assessment was presented within the Online Enrollment application. Some of the changes that can be made as part of the enrollment process are to incorporate information about health and wellness programs that are available to employees. Offer employees links to available health coaching programs as well as tobacco cessation, weight and stress management, healthy eating and other programs the company makes available to them. Providing employees financial and other incentives when they enroll for benefits can help encourage them to try and then stick with a wellness program.

Annual benefit enrollment is also a good time for employers to look at implementing health assessment questionnaires. Organizations that move to online enrollment and provide education, motivational messaging and incentives can dramatically improve employee engagement with benefits, including participation in voluntary programs. Conducting and aggregating the data from health assessments has several potential benefits, including identifying aggregate health risk data for an employer‘s population; controlling health care costs; predicting employee absenteeism; encouraging individuals to take a proactive stance when it comes to personal health care and monitoring the health status of their employee population.

Another option is to engage a wellness or independent health screening company. These firms can conduct onsite biometric testing on employees allowing employees to enter the values into the online health assessment rather than wait for a scheduled visit with a doctor. Immediate screening results often reveal blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides and blood sugar levels, that give employees the extra push they need to exercise and eat right to get their levels in order.

Bottom line annual enrollment is a key opportunity for companies to kick start health and wellness programs by integrating them with their online benefits enrollment. Increasing employee participation rates can help improve their effectiveness, impact the health of employees and, in turn, reduce a company‘s overall benefit costs.

About Choicelinx
Choicelinx Corporation is a benefits technology company specializing in Benefit Administration and Enrollment Process solutions for employers, brokers and carrier partners. Our customized benefits enrollment application helps employers better engage employees when making important purchasing decisions impacting for their family‘s health and financial protection. Choicelinx is headquartered in Hooksett, New Hampshire. To learn more about the Choicelinx® solutions, visit the company on the web at http://www.choicelinx.com.