Purchasers of healthcare services must make difficult trade-offs and funding decisions, often working with limited budgets for health care in general and prevention in particular. Many employers face the dilemma of information gaps, which make investing in prevention difficult. Reliable and valid effectiveness data is often not readily available to employers and financial and economic data is scarce.

Given these information gaps, how can you decide what services to cover or deliver? The Guide to Community Preventive Services (Community Guide) is a valuable resource where businesses can find clear, objective, and employer-friendly evidence for what works to address issues that drive an organization’s health care expenditures. The Community Guide provides information on the spectrum of prevention services that work for groups of people, as well as clinical and cost effectiveness data where available. Our materials are “employer ready” with over 90 evidence-based findings that speak directly to top company health concerns and cost drivers (e.g., tobacco use, vaccine-preventable disease, physical activity, diabetes, and others listed in the navigation bar to your left).

Purchasers of health care can use Community Guide recommendations to construct and select benefit plans for clinical services that cover effective services such as smoking cessation, and disease and case management for diabetes. You can also reduce or eliminate out-of-pocket employee costs for effective services like tobacco cessation treatments or flu shots. In addition, you can use the Community Guide to implement worksite interventions that promote physical activity or restrict smoking.

Keep in mind that the community in which your employees live affects their health and productivity. To promote the health of employees, businesses can partner with city councils, school boards, and other local and state organizations. At the community level, for example, businesses can support community water fluoridation and school vaccination programs or promote school-based physical education programs.

Better health for employees and their families means reduced absence, improved productivity, and a better bottom line. The Community Guide is here to help!