How you explain and promote your insurance benefits helps employees become wiser consumers of health care.

Encouraging employees to “take care of themselves” may sound trite, but consider this: 50 percent of your health status is directly linked to behavior (only 20 percent is genetics; see chart below.) And, unhealthy people use more health care services.

	Factors influencing individual health

Do you have an employee wellness program, or incentives to encourage healthy lifestyles, weight loss and exercise? Because school boards often reduced these programs during budget cuts. Examples of employee wellness programs are located under "Other Resources".

Other tips to engage employees in being more involved in controlling health care costs:

• Communicate more about health benefits and insurance costs. Explain what it actually costs per month to insure each employee and his/her family. Check OSBA’s Web resource page for ideas.
• Show how these costs have increased. You may learn that many employees don’t know these figures.
• Encourage employees to check medical bills for mistakes. This also helps them see how much care actually costs.

• Communicate true cost of health care – not just their “co-pay.”
• Reinforce the partnership – “we’re in this together.”
• Give employees more of a financial stake along with tools and resources to make informed decisions.
• Build incentives for efficient use of health care services.
• Explain how to choose a plan and how to use the plan effectively.
• Provide high quality choices with more opportunity to balance care, convenience and cost.