Get Off the Drugs Or the Dog Gets It!!! Motivating Employees to quit Lifestyle Drugs...

I've got good employees, you've got good employees..  They care, they're smart, all that... But getting a group of employees to collectively attack a corporate issue that is very personal to each is impossible.

Take health care.  The cost trend is obvious to all, so our company does what it can to provide a best-in-class medical plan to all employees for very nominal employee contributions.  But our health plan is subject to market forces, like increasing costs driven by the creation and marketing of Lifestyle Drugs.  As contributors to this post concluded (thanks Laurie, John and Alan), our employee base hears the constant drumbeat of how to make your life better through drugs via marketing campaigns by Rx firms.  As a result, our stressed employee base goes to the doctor and asks for those drugs, which are prescribed as requested in most cases.   Much easier than exercising, eating right, or any of the other remedies for spotty sleep patterns, stress, etc.

So the Rx companies push lifestyle drugs (Ambien or Paxil anyone?) and our employee base gets medicated.  The medical plan gets hammered, and HR types like me wonder how hard to push on education to the masses on the downside of lifestyle drugs.  After all, isn't that the employee's personal business?  It is until the trend impacts the plan to the extent where we have to drop coverage levels or increase employee contributions as a result, then it's everyone's business.

Seth Godin has a riff over at his site focusing on the problem with marketing this type of message. (I ripped the mag cover to the right off his site)   He uses gas prices and the math behind the savings individuals (and the country) could realize by weaning ourselves off of foreign oil.    The problem?  The message is to complex to break down into a 30-second elevator speech.  As a result, it's someone else's problem in most people's eyes.

And so it goes with consumerism, wellness and medical plans.  Everyone knows it's the right thing to do, but everyone wants other people to be focused on it.  Get in shape and eat right instead of taking meds to control stress, cholesterol, high blood pressure and sleep issues - but I'm to busy to get that done - so I need the meds.

Which should leave HR people thinking about how to become marketers.  Will a broad message work about the downsides work?  Or do I need to move to one-one-one marketing?  Can I market the message direct to Ambien or Paxil users to let them know the risks, or does that violate their HIPPA rights?

If the dog in the picture wasn't yours, would you care? 

Comments

[Brad Felton]

Hey Chris, It's Brad, couldn't agree more with the article on the lifestyle drug problem. Nice touch with the National Lampoon's cover.

[Lea]

As someone who went out of her way NOT to ask for medications while in therapy but discovered that I could not function as a good employee without them, I ask you not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Aren't you making a grand assumption that people don't need the medications? Depression that's caused by physical problems/chemical imbalances can't be "cured" by sleep and exercise. Those things can help, but they can't replace medication.

From my experience, the problem with "lifestyle" medications, as you call them, is that patients who ask for them aren't referred to a psychiatrist. My prescriptions come from a psychiatrist who sees me every three months to monitor my medications. I know people who get anti-depressants from their primary care physicians and stay on the same drugs and doses for years because the PCP doesn't monitor their use. If your concern is that people are getting drugs they don't need, I posit that the problem is that they shouldn't be available to patients who haven't been screened by a mental health professional/specialist.

One more thing: This is the second post I've read in the last month where you cast doubt on the legitimacy of mental health issues. Is this a bias that you're aware of? I'm glad you're not in my company's HR department, because I'd hate to have to battle someone like you in order to have my diagnosis taken seriously. As I was diagnosed more than six years ago, and have since battled very serious depression while on medication, I know that what I have is real. I suspect that you would have a hard time believing me.

[Kris]

Lea -

Thanks for writing from an employee's point of view. Couple of notes for you. First up, my post really outlines the concerns of employers related to the explosion of Lifestyle drugs as a direct result of the heavy marketing that occurs from the Rx companies.

You drew the most important distinction in your second paragraph. If you are referred to a specialist who writes a script, that's great. That's the way it should be. If the script is being written by a generalist, that's where most of the problems resides. It's the easy way out in a lot of cases, and the fact that the employee has no incentive to change their behavior is what hurts companies from a cost standpoint - not only in Rx, but in overall medical costs.

You'd actually like me as your HR person. If you get referred and have a need, you'll never see me blink an eye at the usage of the plan. However, the macro trends with lifestyle drugs (which I could argue you are not using based on your situation) indicate much usuage could be avoided through good health habits...

Also, not sure where I am casting doubt on mental health issues. Is that a reference to my assumption that not all who are stressed need Paxil? That's a reality. Once again, referred by a specialist, that's great. Distributed by your family Dr.? I don't think that is in the best long term interests of the individual.

Thanks for reading and commenting...

KD

[Michael]

Seems to me that eleminating advertisments to the masses is a significant step in the right direction.

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Michael - could not agree more. The dollars put into those campaigns really overwhelm society as a whole.

Thanks - KD