The Hill News

For well over a decade, employers have been concerned about the cost of providing health care to their employees and its impact on the competitiveness of their businesses domestically and internationally. The impact of these rising health care costs are seen clearly as more businesses, especially small businesses, are cutting or scaling back insurance coverage, or shifting more of the cost burden on employees.

Running in parallel to this issue of rising costs has been the national trend of declining health status. Employers of companies large and small are a reflection of the nation as a whole, and unfortunately the trajectory of our nation’s health over the past several years has not been a positive story. Faced with these dual challenges of rising costs and decreased health of their workforces, what are employers to do? Nearly all of them have been addressing the cost side of the equation, but now a growing universe of employers are more aggressively tackl! ing the “wellness” side of the equation because they understand that healthier employees are good for business.

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