Real-world wellness pays off

Five years ago, 3form, a materials manufacturer, did a top-to-bottom remodel of its Salt Lake City headquarters campus that included adding a 14,500-sf gym, which was built with the company’s sustainable building products.

3form also instituted a policy that employees who used the gym and complied with certain health metrics would qualify for discounts on their monthly payroll contributions for healthcare coverage. In December 2018, 3form had saved so much money on healthcare costs as a result of this program that it was able to offer its employers free coverage for that month.

The savings equaled 8.3% of the workers’ gross pay in December.

Talley Goodson and Wynn Clayton, 3form’s CEO and CFO, “saw that something was happening on the horizon” about increasing healthcare costs when they approved the investment for the gym, says Christian Darby, the company’s Vice President of Design and Marketing. They took a “holistic approach” whose goal was to improve the overall health of 3form’s workforce, while controlling healthcare costs.

As of December the company employed 382 people and had a total of 909 covered under its healthcare plan. Family members can use the gym, which offers 24/7 access. The facility has eight contracted personal trainers whose jobs include evaluating the gym’s equipment each year for functionality and usage.

Beyond the gym, 3form provides its workers with an onsite doctors’ office for medical appointments, as well as blood tests and prescription refills. Services include follow-up care and counseling in the office or via telephone.

Darby says 3form has had the same healthcare provider for the past four years and into 2019. The company raised its employees’ payroll deduction for healthcare by only 3% in 2018—compared to the national average of 10-12%—and is not increasing that deduction for coverage in 2019.

Darby says participating employees are required to check in with the company’s clinic four times a year, during which 3form’s medical staff might suggest health “opportunities” for employees or their family members to pursue.

To get the discounts on premiums, employees must participate in a Health Risk Assessment to see if they fall outside of established standards for cholesterol, body mass, diabetes, asthma, hypertension, health of mind, eating habits, stress level, or tobacco use. If so, they enter a program and engage in a process that can include taking prescribed medicine or meeting with medical professionals.

In Darby’s case, the med staff found that his cholesterol was “a tad high,” he says, and established targets and a strategy to help lower it.