Self-Insured Schools of California’s Employee Wellness Initiative: A Program Evaluation Plan

Employee wellness programs are implemented widely across organizations in the United States.The benefits of employee wellness programs can be found in employees, employers, and health plan administrators. The benefits to employees include weight control, cardiovascular improvements, and smoking cessation. Employers can benefit from these programs with lower absenteeism and increased productivity from their employees. Health plan administrators can see long term improvements in claims costs among participating members. However, employee wellness programs are not always successful for a variety of reasons, including lack of managerial support, lack of participation, and flawed implementation. The purpose of this paper was to provide Self-Insured Schools of California (SISC), a local health plan administrator, with a detailed evaluation plan for their wellness program initiative. SISC’s Health Benefits Department is the largest public school insurance pool in the United States. The Health Benefits Department administers medical, prescription, dental, vision, and/or life insurance for over 400 school entities across the state of California. This paper includes an evaluation plan specifically developed for SISC to measure success of their implementation process, determine barriers to participation, address wellness interests of employees, and find impact to claims costs within participating districts. The paper also addressed recommendations for further evaluations and how SISC is to assess the rate of return on investments.