SPONSORED: The Rest of the Story About Health Insurance Benefits | Arkansas Business News

Offering employer-sponsored well being advantages is only one step in serving to staff keep general wellness. Research exhibits failing to teach staff about their well being protection, frequent sicknesses and preventive care might show expensive for corporations. According to the nonprofit Center for Health Care Strategies, poor well being literacy can result in medical errors, elevated sicknesses, loss of wages and poor public well being. The value to the economy — $235 billion yearly.

“Low health literacy has been shown to not only impact the workforce through absenteeism and lost productivity, but it impacts entire communities,” mentioned Dr. Aaron Novotny, Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield director of well being economics. “For example, research shows a strong correlation with increased rates of smoking, which correlates with higher rates of obesity and babies born with low birthweight.”

There are two sorts of well being literacy, private well being literacy and organizational well being literacy:

• Personal well being literacy is the diploma to which people can discover, perceive and use data and companies to make knowledgeable health-related choices
• Organizational well being literacy is the diploma to which organizations equitably allow people to search out, perceive and use data to make knowledgeable health-related choices

A workforce that may perceive their health-related companies is more healthy general, and that may have a profitable affect on the firm’s backside line. In a research printed by the Journal of Medical Internet Research, individuals who learn affected person training supplies and talk their understanding again to the physician see a median lower of $675 to their well being care prices every year and are 32% much less more likely to be hospitalized.

“It is important to understand how you can help employees in laying the groundwork for their health literacy so they can become more self-assured in their health care choices and, ideally, get greater results,” Dr. Novotny provides.

While most corporations present paperwork containing a proof of coverages and prices throughout their open enrollment durations every year, it won’t be sufficient. The Literacy Action of Central Arkansas experiences practically 1 / 4 of Arkansans, about half 1,000,000 folks, are at or under the lowest degree of literacy, that means they will learn brief texts however are solely functionally literate with a really primary vocabulary. Thirty-eight % of Arkansans are mentioned to be close to proficient however wrestle with text-based duties.

There are a number of methods employers can enhance the well being literacy of their workers:

• Fund a well being literacy program. Fund a well being literacy program and get staff the help they should get began. It’s essential to have choices so that folks can ask questions, regardless of how easy, or learn to ask questions on a process that their supplier recommends. The promotion of well being literacy can result in enhanced particular person expertise and fewer occupational hazards and accidents.
• Incorporate well being literacy into trainings. Employers can enhance their workforce’s well being literacy by including a layer of well being literacy training to present workforce trainings. Helping staff construct this talent will permit them to greatest make the most of their advantages, understanding all the choices which are obtainable to them.
• View staff as their entire selves. Another essential side of well being literacy is supporting a complete individual strategy to well being. In addition to a number of social and bodily components, a person’s work setting has a pronounced affect on their general well being.

“Providing quality healthcare coverage to your employees and ensuring they care for themselves is an important way to make your workforce feel valued, motivated and inspired,” mentioned Dr. Novotny. “Healthy workers bring their best selves to work, which benefits the business by producing better results.”

Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield is a not-for-profit mutual insurance firm devoted to enhancing the well being, monetary safety and peace of thoughts of its members and the communities it serves. Arkansas Blue Cross is dedicated to a complete individual strategy to well being care, working to deal with bodily, psychological and social well-being. For extra data on selling well being literacy, click on right here.