Wellness programs generate return on investment

EAST SYRACUSE - In 2005, the United States spent $2 trillion on health care, which is $6,683 per person. Employers paid more than one-third of these costs.

For employers, a Return On Investment (ROI) for health care is elusive.

Not if disease, disability, absence, and stress are managed, says Dr. Ron Goetzel, director of Cornell University's Institute for Health and Productivity Studies and vice president of Consulting and Applied Research at Thomson Medstat.

Goetzel spoke Sept. 28 at a conference on controlling corporate, health-care costs at the Wyndham Hotel in East Syracuse. MVP Health Care underwrote the conference, which was sponsored by BizEventz, Inc.

When employees are sick and stressed, they don't perform up to their potential, which affects an employee's "presenteeism", he says. Presenteeism describes an employee who goes to work physically but not mentally because of diseases and ailments such as hypertension, migraine headaches, and hay fever, Goetzel explains.