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Spending, Improves Lifestyle Habits at Sargento Foods
One-on-one coaching for employees
improves lifestyle behaviors, reduces medical claims costs and delivers
a dramatically positive return on investment. These results were
confirmed by a first-of-its-kind actuarial analysis of a health
management initiative designed and implemented by Chicago- and
Sheboygan, Wisconsin based Prairie States Enterprises, which also
administers health benefit programs for self-insured companies.
According
to the analysis performed by the actuarial consulting firm Donlon &
Associates, the medical claims costs were 34 percent below Fiscal 2004
projections for the participating group. Health care costs for program
participants dropped 10.3 percent during the period 2002 through 2004,
while those of non-participants rose 20.7 percent. According to the
actuarial calculations, Sargento, a Wisconsin cheese packager and
marketer, avoided more than $573,200 in health claims cost during 2004.
The study found that compared to the cost of the program, the computed
return on investment was more than 13 to 1. "This result was a winning
combination of stopping health care inflation and actually decreasing
costs," said Prairie States CEO Felicial Wilhelm. "The results of the
new program struck both Prairie States and Sargento executives as
almost being too good to be true". "To say the least, we were extremely
gratified when the results of the actuarial study were even better than
our initial estimates," Ms. Wilhelm said.
Under the program, called Optimal Health, participants fill out a
health risk assessment, undergo blood pressure and cholesterol
screening and ultimately receive a personalized health report which
they review with a Prairie States personal health coach. The
participants then work with the coach to establish their health goals.
"They often expect us to tell them what to do, but we want to know what
they are thinking as a result of the health report and what they
want to do," said Dawn Kind, Director of Optimal Health at Prairie
States. "We're non-threatening and non-punitive. The goal is to help
people become more independent - to take responsibility for their own
care. We help them to set goals, but the goals they set are their own."
For example, Kind said that while an array of health materials are made
available to employees through seminars, printed materials and the
Prairie States Web site, coaches rarely discuss diet with overweight
participants or those with high cholesterol. "We look at the
individual, not the disease," she said. "We want to know the root
causes of weight problems. Are they depressed or not sleeping well? The
truth is we sometimes don't talk about health at all, but instead about
where they are today."
"One-on-one coaching in person and by phone might seem like a high-cost
approach, but we believe it is the only way to go," Wilhelm said. "As a
former nurse, as are many of our staff, we knew going in that human
touch succeeds where medicine and regimens alone often fail. On the
behavioral front, we knew we were right, but I have to admit that
Sargento's cost savings exceeded even our most optimistic projections."
Karri J. Neils, Sargento senior vice president of human resources and a
participant in the Optimal Health program, said the low key, personal
approach works and that it specifically motivated her to lose weight.
Laughing, she said, "I made a promise to my coach and every time she
called me the little guilt bug would bite." Neils said that while the
program's
human-touch elements are important, it's success traces to its linkage
to the third-party-administrator -- Prairie States - that has access to
participants' medical records, which are held in strict confidence. Of
Sargento Food's
current workforce of over 1100 employees, 780 are enrolled with Prairie
States, and 376 participated in the program in 2004. Neils said that in
response to positive feedback, enrollment has been reopened so that
more employees and spouses can join. About Prairie States: Prairie
States was founded in 1989 by registered nurses who believed insurance
company decisions were not always in their patients' best interests.
The company's guiding principle is that people deserve quality health
care and that quality health care can be made affordable. Today,
Prairie States is a fast-growing company that remains unique because of
its experienced clinical staff, which reviews diagnoses, treatments and
after-care plans. This proactive, personalized service combined with
meticulous claims-cost management has helped companies offer benefit
plans at prices both they and their employees can afford. Prairie
States has offices at 101 W. Grand Avenue, Chicago, IL and 516
Pennsylvania Avenue, Sheboygan, WI.
About Sargento: Sargento Foods Inc. Is a family-owned company comprised
of three business divisions: Consumer Products, Food Service and Food
Ingredients. The company operates in four Wisconsin facilities:
Plymouth, Keil, Hilbert and Elkhart Lake. Sargento is a leading
manufacturer, packager and marketer of natural shredded, sliced and
snack cheeses, cheese appetizers, ingredients and sauces. Owned and
operated by the Gentine family for more than 50 years, Sargento has
demonstrated its passion for providing the best in cheese through
innovation in products, packaging and merchandising.
CHICAGO-(BUSINESS WIRE)-Aug. 16, 2005-
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