Back Care

Back pain sends more patients to physicians than any ailment except for the common cold and accounts for a quarter of all workers’ compensation claims.1 We offer a program to help your employees with back pain focus on ways to manage the pain associated with current injuries and ways to prevent them from recurring.

Approximately 30 million Americans suffer from back pain. This number is expected to grow as aging baby boomers who lead active lifestyles face the limitations of age and degenerative diseases like osteoarthritis.1 Americans spend at least $50 billion each year on low back pain, the most common cause of job-related disability and a leading contributor of missed work.

Generally, short-term back pain lasts from a few days to a few weeks. However, when an employee has a back injury, it could lead to:

  • Absenteeism
  • Employee turnover
  • Diminished productivity
  • Direct medical and insurance costs
  • Workers’ compensation claims

Solution

The Back Care program offers participants techniques and support to deal with their back pain. By providing these tools, your employees can learn pain management skills and lower their chances for recurring back injuries, which may result in lower absenteeism and higher productivity.

Participants are identified through claims information and are enrolled automatically in the program. Program participants must complete a short online or telephonic survey in order to provide tailored health coaching. Participants in the Back Care program may receive:

  • A welcome letter introducing the program and instructions to complete the online or telephonic survey
  • Members identified as high risk will receive counseling calls from their personal health coach to provide a complete assessment of their back pain and to educate them on ways to care for and strengthen their back to prevent reinjury and to help manage pain
  • Unlimited access to their personal health coaches who can provide support to all enrolled members
  • Informational materials, such as a guidebook to help explain back pain and introduce various back care techniques to help manage pain and prevent injuries from recurring

Participants are segmented into high and low risk categories based on their survey answers. Those identified as high risk receive aggressive outbound counseling from their health coaches and more frequent mailings that follow their care plan.

Integration and Tools

Back Care is a stand-alone product focused only on ways to care for the back and ways to manage back pain. If you offer other My Health EssentialsSM programs such as Informed Health, Back Care can be partnered with them. Back Care targets members with no other chronic health risks.

Members who have a chronic condition will have access to Back Care information if they are enrolled in one of our disease management programs.

Employers receive aggregate data of the participants’ results to help you understand the health status of your employees.

For more information, please contact your benefits consultant or your BlueCross marketing representative today.

1. Landro, Laura. Ways to Treat Back Pain. Wall Street Journal. May 16, 2007.