Should Employers’ Population Health Improvement Efforts Expand Beyond the Four Walls of the Workplace?

A note from Neil Goldfarb, President and CEO, Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health

Last week, I participated on a speaker’s panel at the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Population Health Improvement workshop entitled Business Engagement in Population Health Improvement. (Gary Rost from the Savannah Business Group also presented, and Andy Webber, from the Maine Health Management Coalition is a member of the Roundtable, and helped plan the meeting agenda). Business and Coalition representatives from around the nation were invited to speak to the IOM Roundtable regarding their efforts to improve population health, and to address the question of how best to engage businesses in improving the health of the communities in which they are located. As President of GPBCH, I was invited to discuss our innovative work on community health issues, including our participation in the Philadelphia Health Initiative on obesity, our ongoing partnership with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health on addressing public health priorities through value-based insurance design, and our leadership of a multi-stakeholder community planning effort addressing disparities in cancer screening and treatment.

Roundtable members noted that businesses increasingly are focusing on improving the health of their employees and dependents, but this commitment to population health improvement does not typically expand beyond the workplace to the broader community. Several presenters noted that employee health and wellness program impact will be hampered if workers spend two-thirds of their time in unhealthy homes and communities, and that recruitment of employees from unhealthy communities translates to an unhealthy workforce. Poor health also burdens the US economy, making businesses less competitive on the global stage, and diverting funds from education and other national priorities. The IOM Roundtable is deliberating on how to educate and engage CEO’s and CFO’s on these issues, recognizing that many American corporations already engage in population health improvement through corporate philanthropy. While some Roundtable members advocated a tax on employers to fund a new national population health improvement effort, others, including myself, stated that employers already carry a disproportionate share of the burden. Given that 30-40% of current healthcare spending is deemed waste, employers and their Coalitions need to continue working to improve quality, safety, and efficiency, and if these efforts are successful, a portion of the derived savings should be reinvested in community-based health improvement initiatives.