While workers may struggle with their weight, it's also time for employers to stop blaming employees for their obesity and start helping them get and stay healthy, which can include access to new medications and drug therapies that help address the issues before it becomes a true health problem.

What obesity means for employees' health

A person with obesity has on average 50% higher annual medical costs. This issue is already driving health plan costs but most plan managers reading this don't even track the rate of obesity in their plan participants.

Most health care plans will pay for expensive bariatric surgery but not for treatments and therapies that could avoid it, and more importantly avoid the costly complications that come from obesity like diabetes, heart disease, chronic kidney disease, respiratory ailments, hypertension, cancer, and stroke. Health plan managers track the cost of these complications but rarely focus on addressing their underlying cause.

Obesity is second only to smoking as a leading preventable cause of death. An estimated one in five deaths among African Americans and Caucasians age 40 to 85 is attributable to obesity.

Health plans will cover as many smoking cessation classes and aids our participants need but won't cover medical nutritional therapy or behavioral counseling to help employees make lasting lifestyle changes. These therapies are inexpensive compared to other treatment options and should be available to all who need them with no barriers.

Better approaches to obesity can help employees & employers

Many effective anti-obesity drugs are now available for those who do not respond to lifestyle modification.  There are approximately 250 additional compounds currently under development. These drugs, like blood pressure and cholesterol medications before them, have the potential to change the course of the obesity epidemic if covered by health plans.

Employers need to consider their role in addressing this public health crisis that is impacting their people and their bottom lines. They can work to end or perpetuate the stigma, bias and body shaming that often comes with obesity by their choice of language, health plan design, as well as hiring and promotion practices.

In business it's often said that what gets measured gets managed. It's time to take measure of our approach to the obesity epidemic, understand its effects on the workforce and provide affordable access to the therapies employees with obesity need to better manage their health.

To learn more about the Diabetes Leadership Council, check out additional resources from this series including Drug Rebates and Preventative Care.