In return, employees can earn money toward their Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and earn prizes, such as iPads, bicycles and passes to the Kettering Recreation Complex.
Although most area school districts have wellness programs, Kettering is the first to employ the traditionally corporate-based WellVibe and the only one offering HSA money as an incentive.
Steve Homan, director of human resources for Miamisburg City Schools, said his district is considering WellVibe, “but I want to see it in action first.”
Superintendent Jim Schoenlein said Kettering is instituting this program because the district is “getting serious about getting healthy.” He cited data that says 50 percent to 75 percent of health care costs can be prevented through healthy habits and behaviors.
“We’re doing this for four main reasons: To get everybody healthy so we can live to play with our grandchildren; to be role models for our kids, since those in education have a special responsibility to be good role models; to be more productive, since healthy people are more productive; and, in the end, we hope this might even control our health care costs,” he said.
In fiscal year 2011, the district spent $9 million from its general fund on health care costs for 825 employees.
Schoenlein said McGohan Brabender, WellVibe’s parent company, will supply the prizes. The district will contribute to the HSAs through its general fund. The amount that will be contributed has not been determined.
The district’s cost for WellVibe is $36 per employee enrolled in the health care plan, or about $30,000 total.
“We fully expect to recoup this expense, and the expense of all rewards and incentives connected with WellVibe, through better health which will cause lower health care costs,” Schoenlein said.
The plan has been approved by the district’s insurance committee — which is made up of staff, administrators and school board members — and it is expected to be approved by the school board Tuesday.
Rebecca Templeton-Owens, Kettering Education Association president, said the teachers’ union was not involved in the process to choose WellVibe, but has agreed to it.
She said she likes the program because it is personalized per employee and includes tasks most healthy people do.
“It’s designed just for my needs,” Templeton-Owens said. “For my incentive points, I am supposed to get a mammogram every year, go to OB/GYN every year, (etc.) I need to do what every 43-year-old woman needs to do.”
She said she is concerned that the program remain incentive-based, and not evolve into one that penalizes participants for unhealthy behavior. She said any movement in that direction would have to be negotiated by the union.
“Personally, I live healthily, and my insurance rates go up because other people choose to live unhealthily,” she said. “But I certainly don’t want it to be punitive, and I don’t believe people who are overweight or smoke should pay more.”
Melissa Gallagher, a Kettering fourth-grade teacher who is on the district’s insurance committee, said she doesn’t think cutting health care costs should be the responsibility of the employee.
“I think promoting wellness is a good idea and I understand the costs of health care are rising astronomically, but I think that’s a function of the medical community and not of consumers,” Gallagher said. “It’s really not us. People get sick; people get cancer. But, when you look at (health care) percent increases in cost as compared to other companies, the difference is huge.”
There also will be a wellness program for Kettering students this fall. It will be based on the Public Health — Dayton and Montgomery County program called 5-2-1 Almost None.
It advocates for five or more servings of fruits and vegetables, no more than two hours of screen time (TV, computer or video games), one hour of physical activity, and very little soda or juice-flavored drinks each day.
Southdale Elementary Principal Jonathan Cooper and John F. Kennedy Elementary Principal Amy Allen are organizing the student program, which likely will have guidelines and prizes that vary per school.
“Part of what we know and believe is that healthy kids make better learners,” Allen said. “That’s really the message that we’re trying to get out. The goal is to raise awareness with kids and families.”
Mad River Local School also has had a program that rewards staff members for healthy activities with prizes, such as gift cards and weights, for the last couple of years.
Jenny Birtle, Mad River spokeswoman, said she thinks the program has benefited her district.
“A lot of people have taken it on, especially in transportation, and many have lost weight doing this,” Birtle said. “The thing about school districts is, as teachers, we have to teach the students to eat healthy. But we also have to promote a better culture with teachers and staff to eat healthy.”
Templeton-Owens said, for her, the importance of wellness is not just about cutting health care costs, but about making staff members healthier and happier in their lives.
“It will make them better teachers, better parents and better spouses,” she said.
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