ROCKY MOUNTAIN MUTUAL

Rocky Mountain Mutual

Rocky Mountain Mutual

Many of Rocky Mountain's 250 employees use the Fitness Center; in fact, the center is often crowded before the workday and during lunch. Joe Mirola, your boss, began to use the Fitness Center as soon as it opened and now averages five days a week, either walking or swimming, before work. Since he began using the center regularly, Joe has enthusiastically described an increase in his energy and productivity. Because of Joe's enthusiasm for the Center, you have started exercising there, too.

Since Joe Mirola has benefited greatly from using the Fitness Center and because, as Claims Manager, he has an interest in healthcare costs, he asked you to review the company records to see if the center has had any impact on employee healthcare costs or on absenteeism.

Looking over the medical costs for the previous two years, you reported to Joe that Rocky Mountain employees who used the Fitness Center did have lower medical costs. You found that the 25 percent of employees (62 people) who used the center once or twice a week showed medical costs of approximately $300 per person (for a total of $ 18,600). The costs for the 10 percent of employees (25 people) who used the facility three times a week or more were only $100 a person (total cost $2,500). In contrast, the 65 percent of employees (163 people) who never used the Fitness Center rang up medical bills of approximately $500 per person (total cost $81,500). “The absenteeism rates were really intriguing, too,” you told Joe. “Fitness Center users missed half as many workdays as non-users. Users missed an average of six days per year, whereas non-users missed twelve days.

Although I know that these statistics do not prove that using the Fitness Center caused lower medical costs or ...