Effectiveness of health promotion programs in moderating medical costs in the USA

Although evidence from scientific evaluations of health promotion programs has demonstrated improvements in selected health outcomes the relationship between participation in health programs and definitive economic returns in medical cost savings has been more difficult to establish. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of employee participation in health pr omotion programs with selected medical cost outcomes Program participation was operationalized as a summed participation score based on employee progr am participation data. Increasing levels of program participation were asso ciated with increasingly higher medical costs but not with higher numbers o f health risks. A Cost Change Model was developed to investigate the relati onship between program participation and changes in cost status (high cost/ low cost) over a 6-year time period. Program participation was highest amon g the high-cost employees. Participation patterns may have reflected the ap peal of most health promotion programming to high-risk/high-cost employees Over time those employees who participated in a comprehensive health promot ion program, including intervention programs, experienced moderation in med ical costs. In contrast, for those employees with participation primarily c oncentrated in health risk awareness and identification programs, medical c osts continued to increase. These findings provide evidence for the effecti veness of a comprehensive health promotion program in moderating medical ca re costs.