The pilot program is free to one company in each of the 14 counties in the Indiana WIRED region.

Press Release

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Spiraling health-care costs can drain financial resources for both companies and their employees, making some companies less competitive, but a pilot program available to north-central Indiana employers is seeking new ways to help save money by changing the way businesses and individuals view health-care choices.

WIRED Healthy Workforce is an initiative developed through Purdue University's Technical Assistance Program (TAP). The project features programs and training modules introduced over an 18-month period that, when implemented, should save money on employee health insurance programs.

"We want to help employees be better consumers of health care and to take better care of themselves," said Cindy Modlin-Adams, an adult nurse practitioner and Purdue University visiting associate professor.

The program consists of an initial assessment that identifies key opportunities for health-care cost control. The pilot program is free to one company in each of the 14 counties in the Indiana WIRED region.

Program recruitment started in February. Implementation begins in November and continues through 2009. Six companies have been recruited so far, with others being sought in Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Fountain, Fulton, Howard, Tipton and White counties.

Manufacturing comprises 40 percent of the wages in the Indiana WIRED region and represents the industry segment that introduced benefit programs to its workers.

"If it works in manufacturing, it most likely will work in other businesses," Modlin-Adams said.

WIRED Healthy Workforce hopes to address a statewide problem of high health-care costs, which impact Indiana's ability to be competitive and keep jobs in the state. The program's goal is to keep health-care costs at a similar or lower level than the average health-care premium percentage increase in Indiana.

The program has been used nationally in larger companies, but Modlin-Adams said she believes the concept can work in smaller companies, as well.

WIRED Healthy Workforce features an interdisciplinary approach, touching on various aspects of health care, including nursing, occupational health, kinesiology, nutrition, ergonomics and operations management. Training is conducted on site.

"We want to prevent overuse of the system and empower employees to make better health-care decisions, and do it in a way that is more efficient," Modlin-Adams said.

For example, if there are health-care situations that can be handled on site instead of at a doctor's office, that reduces the amount of time an employee might miss work, she said.

WIRED Healthy Workforce is innovative in that it acts as a third party - not as a representative of the company, a health-care provider or the insurance company - and offers quantitative measurements on health-care costs.

"This is a way to impact Indiana at the employer level," Modlin-Adams said. "That's where most of us get our health insurance. It's not a Big Brother thing. It's a way of working together as a region and improving our health."

In addition to TAP and Indiana WIRED, other partners in the WIRED Healthy Workforce program are the Purdue Center for Regional Development and local economic development officials.

Indiana WIRED is a three-year, $15 million program that combines the business, civic and educational resources of Benton, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Fountain, Fulton, Howard, Miami, Montgomery, Tippecanoe, Tipton, Wabash, Warren and White counties. WIRED stands for Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development.

Indiana WIRED has four components designed to:

* Create globally competitive industries by combining university research with existing advanced manufacturing, advanced materials and agribusiness firms to generate clusters of innovation.

* Build an entrepreneurship "super region" through the development and growth of new business, while simultaneously equipping existing industry with the tools to think and act entrepreneurially. Emerging and existing entrepreneurs - including students - along with community leaders and economic development support organizations, are key partners in the effort.

* Develop a work force with 21st century skills. The two-pronged initiative focuses on providing older workers the skills to remain employable in the future, while developing educational models based on science, technology, engineering and math disciplines for K-12 students.

* Weave supportive civic networks. To ensure regional viability, cooperation must cross jurisdictional lines, such as cities and counties. The boundaries are irrelevant in a global economy that places an emphasis on entrepreneurship and high performance.

For more information about Indiana WIRED, visit the project's Web site at http://www.indiana-wired.net/

Source: Purdue University