TOPPENISH – The Association of Washington Cities has recognized Toppenish for its outstanding work site wellness program.
Toppenish was one of 34 cities around the state so honored.
The city’s wellness coordinators, Heidi Riojas and Angela Hendricks, and their wellness committee, were lauded at the association’s 24th annual AWC Employee Health Academy in Richland recently.
The AWC Well City award will be formally presented to the Toppenish delegation at the association’s 76th annual conference in Spokane in June.
The award recognizes cities that demonstrate best practices in employee health promotion.
Standards used to evaluate effective programs include policies and procedures, leadership support, wellness committee, internal and external resources, needs assessment, worksite environment, operating plan, and the mix of program activities and evaluation.
Mike McCarty, acting executive director of AWC, said health care costs doubled from the years 1998 to 2008, and there are now 200 cities statewide that offer worksite wellness programs that help control the costs of poor health.
Well designed worksite wellness programs reduce employee health risks and employees participatingin those programs average $300 per year less in health care claims than those without wellness programs, according to Gayla Gjertsen, the AWC director if insurance services.
Employees who have engaged in wellness programs have been successful in reducing health risk factors, and that translates into reduced costs, she said.
Other program benefits include improved morale, increased productivity, reduced use of sick leave, reduced workers’ compensation claims, and reduced healthcare utilization costs.
The programs help the city operate more efficiently, and contribute to maintaining affordable health care coverage for all cities and employees insured by the AWC  Trust.
AWC is a private, non-profit corporation serving 281 Washington cities, and the association employee benefit trust provides health benefits to more than 16,000 city employees.