An Overlooked Benefit of Wellness Programs

A recent report by insurance broker/HR consulting firm Lockton looks at how wellness programs can reduce a company’s workers’ compensation claims. The report explains the role comorbidities, such as obesity, are playing in workers’ compensation claims and the steps a company can take to realize a positive impact from their wellness programs. (Comorbidities are preexisting health conditions that, in addition to a workers’ compensation injury or occupational disease, could hinder an employee’s recovery.)

“Effective corporate wellness initiatives have shown to be successful in not only reducing the duration of lost-time workers’ compensation claims but also in promoting healthy behaviors that potentially inhibit unsafe or inattentive workplace behavior,” says Lockton’s Michal Gnatek, author of the report. “Risk managers and claims professionals should be adding employee wellness to the available arsenal of weapons to combat increasing claims.”

Read Gnatek’s report.