by Sarah Gunter
In a sea of conflicting opinions and information about wellness vendors, it can be hard knowing where to stand. Considering that 87% of employees say they consider health wellness offerings when choosing an employer, a wellness program might be integral to your company’s recruitment and retention. Then again, if only 42% percent of employers are able to demonstrate value of their health and wellness programs, how do you know what to even look for? Fret not—Circle Wellness is here to be your life raft, keeping your company afloat and keeping you from drowning in uncertainty.
Extended metaphors aside, let’s dive (😉) into the nitty gritty. When asked about the Circle Wellness difference, Chrissy Nicholson, VP of Sales at Circle Health Partners (CHP), explains, “We strive to be more than just a vendor. We really view ourselves as strategic business partners as much as anything else.”
What does being a strategic business partner look like? For Circle Wellness, part of it has to do with data and analytics. CHP’s founders’ roots working for a large, national TPA inform their custom analytics offerings and their commitment to continuously providing their clients with contextualized data.
One such offering is the Circle Well Report™, which helps clients see more clearly how all health claims (medical, pharmacy claims), health vendors (onsite clinic, case management, disease management etc.) and wellness related data (health risk assessments, blood labs and biometrics) combine to form a better analysis and provide clearer direction with health benefit decisions.
Similarly, the CHP Return on Investment Analysis is a detailed report of all costs, savings and activities related to the client’s benefit offerings. The report combines metric benchmarking and actual claims and trend data to compare against. Ultimately, both reports can help groups determine changes within their health plan and invest in those programs that are working best for them.
Nicholson shared one example of a client report with me, providing an overview of a custom health and wellness program for a client with 16,000+ employees. Key findings included:
- Over a 12-year period, participation and compliance in health risk assessments and screenings went from 34-38% to 70-78%; a change that resulted from finding the right balance of employee health offerings and incentives.
- Although not all employees participated, the employees who did saw their PEPM claims costs dip significantly lower than the nonparticipants.
- After 10 years of the program, total claims cost rose 12% higher than baseline—compared to a 91% expected increase using national trends data.
- Total ROI in the most recent year including incentives in the investment was 3.56:1, with a 1.85:1 cumulative ROI over 10 years.
Employee feedback was also positive, with one employee saying, “A fantastic tool for interested people to have a peek at so many health variables. I see this as an area where the company exceeds other companies. I would do this even if the incentive was not offered.”
Another employee credited the health screenings for potentially life-saving care: “The blood tests found an anomaly in kidney function. The anti-inflammatory med I have taken for 10 years was implicated. Now that I am off it, kidney function shows normal again. Timely test results stopped what might have been permanent damage - thanks!”
Outside of data and analytics accountability, Nicholson also attributes Circle Wellness’ success to their well-rounded offering of services covering mental well-being, financial wellness, physical health, and much more. This wide net of solutions is what allows Circle Wellness to be a one stop shop, where everything from employee data to vendor health partners is streamlined and efficient.
Nicholson points to a trend of specialized wellness solutions that focus solely on one component of wellbeing, like mental health or financial wellness. She’s wary of these solutions, because, as she says, when it comes to health and wellness, “the whole circle needs to be considered.”
Unbalanced wellness offerings aren’t the only problem companies face when designing and implementing employee wellness programs. When it comes to multiple point solutions, the top three issues that companies encounter are communication, integration, and confusion. As Nicholson says, “If we’re compiling components of wellness together om a fragmented way, we can't expect great results.”
“When you choose Circle Wellness, you get a proven partner who understands planning, communication and reporting that is needed at the executive level to make your program be successful,” says Nicholson. With a plethora of risky wellness options out there, Circle Wellness demonstrates and proves its value, so you don’t have to do the heavy lifting.
We are proud to feature Circle Wellness on The Granite List
