Principal Offers Tools to Monitor Employee Wellness

According to a press release from Principal, the Wellness Score will help employers improve their employees’ health and productivity and drive down benefit costs. The score will give employers an actual number by which to measure the health of their employees.

The Principal Wellness Score was designed to give participants a simple way track their health status on an annual basis.  Each employee who participates in an on-site wellness screening is assigned a score ranging from zero to a maximum of 100. That score incorporates an individual’s health-screening results (biometrics) together with the responses to a Health Risk Appraisal questionnaire on lifestyle behaviors and personal health history. 

Once each individual has received his or her score, the results are provided in an aggregate form to employers, ensuring confidentiality. 

“Using the number, employers can track health-improvement from year to year to get a better idea of what will happen to their claim costs over time” said Audrey Vaughn, second vice president of wellness and medical management at the Principal Financial Group. “Quite simply, a higher aggregate wellness score could indicate lower costs in the future.”

Principal has also collaborated with WebMD to offer My Health Manager for wellness and health plan participants. 

With the tool members can enter their personal health information to determine health status, set goals and track improvement. They are also able to maintain an online personalized health record and have access to tailored health improvement resources like weight loss and smoking cessation.

The program also provides free access to WebMD’s in-depth online health content.

For more information visit www.principal.com .