Overview

The United Auto Workers' demand for a comprehensive preventive health program and the General Motors Corporation's concern over rising medical costs led them to jointly develop a corporate wellness program in 1996. LifeSteps, which was designed to improve the health and well being of the GM population, consists of a basic program nationwide and an intensive program available in Flint, Michigan, and Anderson, Indiana. The program involves education, health appraisals, counseling, and other interventions. LifeSteps has attracted 43 percent of households and 34 percent of individuals, with 13 percent of those participating in three or more program components migrating to lower-risk category. There is some evidence that the LifeSteps program has succeeded in slowing the rate of increase in health care costs. A recent study also found that LifeSteps interventions might save $42,355 per 1,000 active employees or roughly $42 a person—sizable savings for a self-insured company responsible for the health care costs of 1.25 million employees, dependents, and retirees. About two-thirds of the people GM insures have indemnity or preferred provider organization coverage, and it is this group that presents the greatest opportunity for GM to control health care expenditures. For more information, see the Fund publication under Related Resources to the right.

This study was based on publicly available information and self-reported data provided by the case study institution(s). The aim of Fund-sponsored case studies of this type is to identify institutions that have achieved results indicating high performance in a particular area, have undertaken innovations designed to reach higher performance, or exemplify attributes that can foster high performance. The studies are intended to enable other institutions to draw lessons from the studied organizations' experiences in ways that may aid their own efforts to become high performers. The Commonwealth Fund is not an accreditor of health care organizations or systems, and the inclusion of an institution in the Fund's case studies series is not an endorsement by the Fund for receipt of health care from the institution.