Downtown Businesses Share Insights with Minneapolis TMO and Alliance for a Healthier Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS – Area small businesses told researchers that the skyrocketing costs of health care are unsustainable, even in the short term. Friday in a focus group cosponsored by the Downtown Minneapolis Transportation Management Organization (TMO) and the Alliance for a Healthier Minnesota, participants discussed a variety of topics and concerns relating to the cost and consumption of health care. The focus group included businesses like Bassford Remele, Disciplined Growth Investors, Free Spirit Publishing, The Minneapolis Foundation and Private Bank Minnesota, among others.
The focus group was one in a series of focus groups being hosted by the Alliance throughout the state. These focus group meetings are designed to help businesses express their thoughts, needs and frustrations regarding health care, and are designed to reveal the kinds of information that they seek, and how they would like to receive that information. Based upon this feedback, the Alliance will pursue opportunities to tailor information and tools to meet the needs of small and medium sized businesses.
“We know that businesses are struggling with health care – from information overload, to information clarity and options for solutions,” says Matt Hughes, Executive Director of the Alliance for a Healthier Minnesota’s Small Business Alliance. “Without question, clear options provide power. But before the needs of businesses can be met, we must know what they determine is most needed.”
Several participants discussed their efforts to provide health-related incentives and information to their employees, encouraging them to make healthier choices easier. Research supports these worksite wellness efforts. In fact, the CDC reports that more than 75 percent of employer health care costs and productivity losses are related to employee lifestyle choices.
Many businesses in Minneapolis are working to help employees make healthy choices at work through the Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP). SHIP is designed to help Minnesotans live longer, healthier lives by preventing the leading causes of chronic disease: tobacco and obesity. As part of the Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP), the Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support and its partners are making long-term, sustainable improvements in schools, worksites and other environments to support healthy eating, physical activity and smoke-free living.
SHIP was launched as part of Minnesota’s Vision for a Better State of Health, the bipartisan health reform package enacted in 2008.
Through SHIP, the Downtown Minneapolis TMO implemented a workplace wellness pilot program with eight downtown employers and property managers. The pilot program includes worksite bike/walk friendliness assessments, worksite education and outreach programs, and worksite improvement grants for bike racks, lockers, bike repair kits and signage.
“We appreciate the opportunity to host a conversation between small business leaders to facilitate the exchange of ideas, strategies and concerns in dealing with rising health care costs. There is synergy between employer efforts to reduce health care costs through wellness initiatives and the TMO’s efforts to promote active commuting and transit programs,” says Minneapolis TMO Executive Director Dan MacLaughlin. “We are seeing an increase in requests from employers to help develop custom materials and programs to increase the effect of their wellness initiatives. These conversations help us improve the quality of services and programs we provide to the downtown business community.”
The goal of the Alliance for a Healthier Minnesota’s Small Business Alliance is to bring the best health-oriented information, in the most useful ways, to small businesses and their employees, designed to support smarter, more informed consumers of health care with a special emphasis on workplace health promotion.
The Alliance for a Healthier Minnesota is a public-private partnership that includes a group of Minnesota companies joined together to create fun, engaging and informative events and competitions to help Minnesotans get and stay healthy. Alliance member companies include Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, Cargill, General Mills, Medica, Medtronic, The Midwest Dairy Association, Target and UnitedHealth Group, along with the Minnesota Department of Health’s Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP). Learn more at MNAlliance.org.
