Health Care Reform
The events and oratory that led to the inauguration of President Barrack Obama filled the mind of each and every American with positive thoughts in regard to having healthy lifestyle that would follow health care reforms. The anticipated health care reforms were to lead to the realization of healthy lifestyle changes and changes in regard to the way people look at things which transfer the “employee wellness” responsibility to the employers. The reason for this is that the high cost claims are making the contribution of the employer to the health insurance of the employee to increase greatly. Ensuring employee wellness brings about having a work force that is more productive and health care costs that are lower. Treitman1 points out that an internet search of the phrase “environment of change” reveals in many articles about issues that need to be changed like environmental pollution and global warming. However, according to Treitman1(Par 1), what was hard to find in the search was anything linked to setting up a “safe and supportive space” to give encouragement to employees to carry out “behavioral changes” that facilitate realization of better health.
As on one hand people have concerns about the environment in which they live, on the other hand, they are neglecting the work environment, the environment in which the human beings also spend much of their time in their lives. The work environment has the ability to enhance or detract as well. There is need to stimulate or inhibit the vital elements that give motivation to the employees to move out of their current lifestyle they are so much used to and commence on a fresh “decision tree” that can assist in realizing the work force that is more productive and healthy. For a person to have control on the health care costs, he or she must ensure creation of an environmental change; and that which facilitates easy adoption of a plan of action by the employees1(Par 2) .
The managers of any business organization set up the work environment. Just in a similar manner as these managers set the example for work, they have the obligation to set the example for health at the place of work. After the managers meeting this obligation, the employees will then emulate the leadership example and turn out to pay attention to what is comfortable. According to Treitman1(Par 3), it was pointed out by Jim Gyurke (“Vice President of Marketing and sales at PAR”) that any business organization that has hopes of attaining success in the implementation of a new program; be it in line with employee welfare, service or manufacturing, the organization must embrace that move and ensure that it is a component of the company’s values and philosophy. Jim Gyurke further points out that, in the actual sense, the real meaning of this is that all the employees must eventually agree to the offering as being positive as well as essential and attach value to it as a “personal benefit” . It isn’t sufficient for the management of an organization to talk of changes but they must as well model it and when observation is carried out in the labor force, it is supposed to be rewarded and celebrated1(Par 3).
Therefore, it must be recognized that coming up with a decision to change when everything around is not changing is a hard undertaking. The decision to change can bring in stress. Presenting posters within the organization from the providers of health insurance will not be effective if there is no substantial knowledge of the “behavioral change” process. The avenue that leads to encouraging participation is to bring down the level of stress that is linked to coming up with a decision to go in the direction of realizing better health by setting up a fresh “corporate culture”1(Par 4). The business organizations that have attained success come up with a fresh “social norm” that encourages a lifestyle that is healthier. The starting point for this is bringing down the level of stress.
Reducing stress may be quiet simple if the appropriate measures are taken to deal with it. Treitman1(Par 5) suggests some ideas that can be adopted to bring down the level of stress. One of the ideas he suggests is that the schedules in the company should be kept flexible to a level that accommodates adjusted work requirements as well as emergencies. The employees should also be allowed to engage in exercises in the course of the work day. More so, the management should also provide assistance and simple tools for managing time that enables employees to do the right thing at the right time such as calendars and “to-do-list”1(Para 9). He also suggests that there is need to have meetings in motion. When a small number of people, two or three, intends to have a meeting, it should be encouraged that the meeting takes place outside. It could be amazing how such meetings are beneficial and stimulating1(Para 9). These are among the ideas that may contribute to stress reduction.
The management should engage in investing in the wellness of the employees and provide them with incentives to make sure there is participation. Not all the rewards offered to the employees are costly; by a company recognizing its employees, this plays a great role. The notion of celebrating the performance of an employee through recognition of his or her accomplishments is, in most cases, much more effective as compared to the rebate of the employee for joining the gymnasium.
An important component in setting up a program that is effective is to carry out the analysis of the health care expenditure of a company in order to come up with effective programs to control the costs. Many questions are asked and when the questions are asked in regard to the percentage of the involvement of the management in the wellness program of the organization, the answer that is obtained is greatly low. The companies have designed the “executive programs” and have devised ways to carry out the analysis of the interests of each and every individual to boost participation. In order to control the health care costs, it is important to first have the knowledge about the trend that gives direction to the high cost claims of the company and come up with appropriate measures to control them. For the reason that individuals are not the same, great success can only be achieved from offering various options that are available. When the leadership of an organization presents the example via participation, there is a high likelihood for the employees of the organization to engage in participation1(Para 11).
REFERENCES
1. Treitman, N. The environment change. Nation HealthCare Reform Magazine. Web site. http://www.healthcarereformmagazine.com/article/the-environment-of-change.html. Updated April 01, 2011.. Accessed April 26, 2011.
