Workplace obesity: A $1.72T epidemic demanding a smarter benefits strategy

With adult obesity rates over 40% in the U.S., benefits leaders are facing one of their most complex challenges – a crisis impacting a large segment of most companies’ workforces. This multifaceted chronic disease has wide-ranging impacts undermining workforce health and productivity, and driving up staggering health care costs for employers.

The costly toll of obesity

Obesity increases the risk for numerous other chronic conditions, including heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer. It’s also linked to higher rates of sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, depression, and other issues that can undermine employee wellbeing and performance.

Beyond the human cost, obesity extracts an enormous financial toll. An estimated $1.72 trillion is spent annually on obesity-related illnesses in the United States, including direct health care spend and indirect costs from absenteeism, presenteeism, disability, and premature death.

For employers, this translates into higher health plan spending, more sick days, lower productivity when employees are present but not working optimally due to health issues, and challenges with recruitment and retention. One study found 44% of people with obesity would consider changing jobs to gain better coverage for obesity treatment.

There’s no quick fix. But taking a multifaceted approach can help employers confront this epidemic head-on. This article will discuss steps you can take to address and manage the obesity epidemic’s toll on employee health, productivity, and health care costs.

Start with data

The first step is using health data analytics to establish a baseline and understand the true impact obesity is having on your organization’s workforce and budget. Identify key metrics like:

• Percentage of employees with an obesity diagnosis code
• Percentage of obesity-related comorbidities like diabetes, hypertension, etc.
• Total annual health care spend for employees with obesity vs. employees with a healthy BMI
• Spending breakdown between medical costs and prescription drugs for obesity

This type of data analysis can uncover gaps in care, enable more accurate budgeting, shed light on the highest-cost segments to prioritize, and measure improvement over time.

Support access to evidence-based treatment

Since obesity is a complex, multifactorial disease, a range of clinically-validated treatment approaches should be made available to employees through the health plan:

• Behavioral/Lifestyle interventions: Diet, exercise, therapy, and other programs focused on building habits and lifestyle changes are usually the first-line treatment
• Medication: Drugs like the GLP-1 agonists Wegovy, Ozempic, and Mounjaro can produce significant weight loss but at a very high cost
• Surgery: Bariatric procedures like gastric bypass surgery are commonly covered benefits but are highly invasive

An ideal approach covers all these evidence-based treatment avenues and utilizes stepped care intensity, escalating or de-escalating treatment based on an individual’s needs and response.

Robust employee communication and engagement are critical, ensuring employees understand their benefits and available treatment pathways. This can help reduce underutilization of obesity treatment – currently, only about 5% of eligible adults pursue it.

Related: Obesity, excess weight cost businesses, employees more than $400 billion in 2023

Prioritize prevention & culture

While ensuring treatment access is important, a complementary investment must be made in prevention efforts aimed at reducing the drivers of obesity across the workforce population:

This includes promoting physical activity, healthy eating and nutrition, sleep optimization, stress management, and other wellness programs. Look for opportunities to make the workplace itself nudge employees toward healthier default choices through environmental design, policies, and shifting nutritional norms.

By blending data-driven insights with robust treatment benefits, a strong prevention program, and a workplace culture of health, employers can finally start confronting the obesity crisis more effectively. The potential returns are substantial – improved workforce health and productivity, better employee retention and recruitment, and reining in one of the largest preventable health care cost drivers.

Jennifer Jones, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships & Population Health Practice Leader, Springbuk