The organizations with the most cost-efficient health plans are the ones that streamline the services employees receive for both their physical and mental health.

As a long-term goal, having your general health plan, staff member assistance program (EAP) and health promotion program communicating regularly with one another about employees’ treatments is the single best way to reduce redundant or contradictory treatments, eliminate unnecessary claims and improve the quality of the plans for which you pay.

Let’s look at the relationship between your health promotion program and your EAP to illustrate the importance of attacking health care costs cross a wide front.

You can begin a health promotion program with a health risk (assessment|appraisal} and then, when appropriate, roll out a smoking cessation program or a weight loss program.

But ultimately you want to make sure that your wellness provider works in conjunction with your EAP provider.

Here is why –  It’s very common for an staff member to contact the EAP because the individuals feels depressed about his or her weight. What you want is for the EAP vendor to treat the employee’s depression and behavioral issues, plus you want the EAP to refer the staff member to the health promotion program to deal with the root cause of the problem – obesity.

The same thing escorts the relationship your health promotion program and your workers’ comp vendor, STD and LTD vendors, rehab people , and/or illness managers. You want all them talking to – and sharing data with – each other. If they’re not, it’s costing you money.

In general, the companys who achieve the greatest cost savings through their health promotion programs are the ones who overlap wellness with behavioral and occupational health issues.