In the Sept/Oct 2012 issue of The Art of Health Promotion, we confront the issues concerning investing in health improvement that are felt by decision makers on behalf of their organizations. Like individuals caught between current and future needs, organizational policy setters face chronic pressure to deliver near term earnings while providing thoughtful stewardship of the organization’s long term capacity for achievement.
Dr. Paul Terry leads a discussion with Dr. Dee Edington, Founder and Professor of the University of Michigan Health Management Research Center and Dr. Thomas Parry, President of the Integrated Benefits Institute. Webinar participants will be encouraged to submit questions and offer comments for these expert’s reactions. As you will read in this month’s interview with Dr. Edington, he doesn’t mince words concerning the responsibility organizations should feel for managing tomorrow’s cost with prudent decisions made today. Similarly, in Dr. Parry’s commentary in this issue, you will learn that the bar has been set higher for showing a Return on Investment (ROI) for Wellness than most other health expenditures.
Dr. Edington will summarize key principles from his book, “Zero Trends: Health as a Serious Economic Strategy.” Dee explains how high risk status is related to high cost, how change in costs follow change in risks (in both directions), how combinations of risk are the most significant precursors to high costs, and finally how the “Do not get worse” and help-the-healthy-people-stay-healthy concepts were born.
Participants can also react to Dr. Parry’s findings from the Integrated Benefits Institute’s (IBI) recent survey of 313 chief financial officers, Making Health the CFO’s Business. Dr Parry’s research indicates that CFOs who receive benefits program results in terms that are important to their own strategic financial goals are more likely to understand the impacts of benefit design on program costs, labor requirements, and productivity outcomes than other CFOs.
