Health Risk Assessments for women, say it's a waist size greater than 35 inches and for men it's over 40 inches that might be costing you extra money. Your waist size is just one of the established guidelines that predict health related problems. Others include your blood pressure, your blood sugar levels, your resting heart rate, your cholesterol levels, your body mass index and whether you smoke, drink on a daily basis, etc. All of these will be used by your health insurance companies to determine your health care insurance costs either for you on a personal level or by your employer.

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, if you are a employee at the Michelin tire company, your waist size could mean that you will have to pay over $1,000 more for health care coverage a year. In another corporate setting, employees received $100 a month for reaching their weight loss goals for that month. It seems that everyone is talking money issues when it comes to our personal health. Why so much attention on our health suddenly? The Towers Watson consulting firm stated that corporate spending on health care is expected to reach an average of $12,136 per employee this year. That is a lot of money per employee and that is why so many corporations are beginning to mandate employee participation in health related programs so they can control their health care costs. Some employees are not happy with this mandate and feel that their employers now have access to their personal health information and are using it to control them monetarily. They feel this then violates their personal freedoms with their lifestyle choices. However, present law permits companies to use health-related rewards and/or penalties as long as the amount doesn't exceed 20 percent of the employees' health care costs.

By 2014, the Affordable Care Act, will be in full swing. This law was established to put into place strong consumer protections in health care, provide new coverage options for all people and help everyone have access to health care coverage. This law will also expand the ability of employers to provide financial incentives to workers for meeting health care goals. Presently, we are seeing an increase in corporate incentives for health care such as memberships at local gyms, health care screenings to help you assess your current risk factors and participation in weight loss programs to insure the overall health. So why not participate? What have you got to lose? Get out your tape measure and see what your waistline tells you. Maybe you can even save yourself and your employer a little bit of money and shed the spare tire once and for all.

Sheree DiBiase, PT, is the owner of Lake City Physical Therapy, (208) 667-1988 and she and her staff are available to help you get a jump on your health risk assessment goals. Your health and wellness is our priority.