JHCC WIN subcommittee notes July 9, 2008

Members present: Heather Swanson, John Riley, Staff: Mike Humphreys Guests: Summer Bass Neuroth, Roth, Shannon Brady Garman

Mike Humphreys presented the following information about the history of the WIN initiative:

The reasons why University of Alaska—and many other leading organizations across the nation—actively promotes wellness to its employees include:

·  Employees who participate in wellness programs enjoy an enhanced quality of life.

·  People typically spend most of their waking hours at work. As a result, the worksite is the place where they can most readily be reached with programs that support a healthy lifestyle.

·  Employees who participate in worksite wellness programs tend to enjoy their jobs more.

·  Healthier employees often are more successful at their jobs.

·  Organizations that invest in a healthy workforce are modeling a proactive approach to wellness for other organizations, for the community, and for individuals.

·  Properly planned employee wellness programs can save more money than they cost.

Win for Alaska is a unique partnership between the University of Alaska and its employees. The goal of the partnership is to establish a culture of wellness at UA, provide employees with the tools they need to identify their health needs and risks, and encourage employees to achieve wellness goals.

In late August 2007 the Director of Benefits came to the conclusion that the telephonic coaching program was having less-than-outstanding results. This conclusion was based on reports from Premera/Summex of as well as the comments received from faculty, staff, governance and union leadership about the telephonic program. It was clearly evident that the university needed to change its approach if UA wanted to have an effective wellness program.

As a result the Director of Benefits asked WIN for Alaska to investigate having onsite personal health consultants/coaches in Anchorage, Juneau, and Fairbanks. The goal, to provide sessions where faculty and staff could sit down and meet one-on-one with a highly trained health consultant (WIN for Alaska Wellness Consultant) to discuss their current lifestyle, nutrition and physical fitness status and then, with the coach’s help, design a personal plan of action.

The Director of Benefits talked about this concept and shared WIN’s suggested program with various employee groups. Most agreed that scaling down the telephonic coaching and trying the personal health consultant/coach concept was a reasonable idea.

WIN for Alaska proposed a three phase program that allows 25% of UA’s Juneau, and Anchorage faculty/staff and spouses the ability to meet with an Onsite Personal Health Planning Wellness Consultant. The sessions include an Initial Session, a 30 Day Check Up, and a 6 Month Review Session. WIN secured regular meeting space on the University campuses for these appointments and has been providing monthly participation. (Preceding notes submitted by Mike)

Summer Bass Neuroth, Roth, Shannon Brady Garman of WIN then presented the following information:

The WIN annual and monthly reports detail the numbers of members of participating in various aspects of the program. It was discussed that the typical participation rate in a wellness program is 25%. The UA participation rate already exceeds that figure. They also presented results from a software program on wellsteps.com that estimated the WIN program could save $1.1 million in UA health-care costs in 2009. This is roughly equal to the projected cost of 2009 WIN program. Savings are projected to increase $2.4 million in 2010.

The sub committee’s conclusion was that WIN is fulfilling its obligations and providing a quality program. The committee would like more information on the cost-effectiveness of the WIN program. Based on these conclusions the subcommittee makes two recommendations to the JH CC:

# 1 Expand WIN IHP's to Fairbanks.

#2 UA will contract with an independent consultant to review the WIN program including its cost-effectiveness before the end of the current WIN contract.

Heather and Tim volunteered to develop a web voting system to expedite the ability of the full JHCC to vote on these recommendations and allow WIN to move forward.

Respectfully submitted to the JHCC

John Riley