THE CHALLENGE

Wellness advocates found limited resources and limited support when setting out to show employers that value-based benefit design is an essential component of health care planning.

Texas lacked a credible, statewide voice capable of uniting health care professionals, business leaders and public policy makers who understood that investing in workplace wellness (i.e., employers investing in preventive medicine, diet, exercise and smoking cessation) would produce a significant return for employers—and employees—in the form of greater productivity, a significant reduction in businesses’ health care costs, and a healthier workforce.

ROSS Communications set out to create a collaborative effort capable of significantly moving the needle on efforts to increase employers’ investments in wellness.

THE SOLUTION

Working with leading health care providers, business leaders and wellness advocates, ROSS leveraged the firm’s experience in coalition building, internal and external communications, issue management, media outreach and message delivery to build a broad-based business and health care coalition—the Texas Coalition for Worksite Wellness.

ROSS helped develop educational materials, persuasive programming and targeted outreach that led to the growth of the coalition from an initial membership of approximately 50 to more than 600 supporters, including C-suite executives, human resource representatives, health care advocates and policy makers.

THE RESULTS

More than 100 C-suite executives joined in the coalition’s launch event, and more than 400 business and health care leaders participated in the “Ounce of Prevention” employer workshop series.

The development of hands-on, how-to employer and physician toolkits for smoking cessation became a hallmark of the coalition’s Call for Coverage and Treatment campaign. Reaching more than 2,000 employers and physicians in 17 Texas cities, the toolkits provided relevant, timely and responsive content aimed at deepening interest and investment in prevention, wellness and smoking cessation in the workplace.

The coalition became a reliable and respected source for innovative business and health care programming and insight.

 

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