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When Redstone Presbyterian Senior Care in Greensburg was hit with a 44 percent increase in health insurance premiums in 2002, the assisted living provider initiated an employee wellness program to reduce skyrocketing costs, its human resources chief said.

"We have found this to be very successful. We've seen premiums reduced -- $440,000 in savings over the past three years -- and about 99.8 percent of the employees continue to meet the (wellness) requirements," said James Hodge, vice president of human resources at Redstone, which has 400 employees.

Redstone Presbyterian is the exception when it comes to Western Pennsylvania employers measuring the financial results of their wellness programs, according to a recently released survey of 26 employers that conducted wellness programs.

Eighty-eight percent of the companies surveyed did not measure the financial outcome of their health education program, according to the report from Buck Consulting LLC, a Downtown firm that last year collected data nationwide from companies small and large.

Part of the reason for not tracking financial results is that companies have to decide what data to collect to analyze the financial benefits of their program, said Lorin Lacy, head of Buck's health and productivity practice.

"How you really measure it is a big stumbling block. How do you measure expenses that you don't incur" in improving an employee's health, Lacy said.

The survey found that about 45 percent of employers thought their wellness programs had some impact on health care costs, but that might be based more on anecdotal evidence than hard data, Lacy said.

Pressley Ridge, a North Side-based nonprofit that serves troubled children, has saved money by conducting wellness programs the past three years, but it has not determined how much it saved, said James Doncaster, senior director of Pressley Ridge's organization and development. The programs are available to about 1,100 Pressley Ridge employees in Pennsylvania and six other states.

At Bayer Corp.'s headquarters in Robinson, where about 1,500 people work, the company's return on the investment in the programs is at the national average, said Denise Campbell, program manager for Bayer's Wellness Works initiative.

"You're getting people to be healthy and cut down on health care costs. Bayer is in the national average (for wellness program results). For every $1 you spend, you get $3 back in the form of lower health care costs," Campbell said.

A comprehensive worker wellness program can save employers $1.65 in health-related costs for every $1 spent, according to a 2008 study conducted by Highmark Inc., a Downtown-based health insurance company. Helping workers avoid hospitalization yielded the highest return on an investment, a result of medical screenings and employees taking medication, the study found.

"We believe we will realize future cost savings that will lower our health care utilization rates," said Mary Grasha-Houpt, human resources manager for VisitPittsburgh, a Downtown-based tourism-promotion organization.

"Most importantly, we will have a healthier staff," Grasha-Houpt said. Nearly three-fourths of VisitPittsburgh's 55 employees participate in its three-year-old wellness program -- Highmark's Lifestyle Returns program.

Reducing health care costs was the top objective of U.S. employers for conducting wellness programs, according to Buck's survey. Increasing productivity and reducing absenteeism also were priorities, the survey found.

Pressley Ridge wanted to reduce absenteeism, so "promoting good health is good for the employees and good for the organization," Doncaster said.

For the wellness efforts to be successful, there has to be a variety of programs to meet the interests and health needs of different people, employers said. Highmark works with about 600 companies in Western Pennsylvania on wellness programs, spokeswoman Kristin Ash said.

Exercise, healthy eating and addressing chronic disorders such as heart disease and diabetes were the key issues driving wellness strategies in the United States, the Buck survey found.

To make the employee wellness programs appealing to as many of Redstone's 400 employees as possible at its sites in Greensburg, Murrysville and North Huntingdon, it offered 15 wellness programs, including kickboxing, yoga and ballroom dancing, Hodge said. Workers were eligible for rewards for taking part in preventive services and joining fitness centers or participating in community running events, Hodge said.

Bayer has about 65 percent participation in its wellness program, Campbell said. Of those workers, 98 percent say they are satisfied with the program, which includes risk assessments, health coaching, walking groups, yoga, Pilates and even massage therapy and art therapy.

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