According to the federal Centers for Disease Control, preventable illnesses and medical conditions comprise approximately 90% of this nation's $1.4 trillion medical care costs.

A recent NASA study found that people who exercise have twice the stamina and productivity in the last two hours of the day than their more sedentary colleagues.

Data from one carrier show that members engaged in its wellness program experienced a 15% drop in claims over a three-year period and that by Year 3, companies with 5,000 employees or more record direct medical savings averaging $2.5 million.

Applied to other cost issues, those numbers would represent a boardroom-level crisis and business opportunity, but in many companies, that is not the case. Top executives are either not aware of the statistics and their impact on the bottom line, or they think it is not their job or within their capacity to address them.

The good news -- and the challenge -- is that this is not the case. Increasingly, the issue is being successfully addressed by wise executives who recognize that while employees are most definitely human beings, they also are machines of production that require maintenance.

A growing number of American businesses are responding by offering wellness programs, which always are a good idea, but which, because of three missing ingredients, often do not live up to expectations.

For more information on this topic including the National Business Group on Health Awards for 2007 click here.

One of those ingredients is leadership -- buy-in at the top. People don't like being told what to do, but most will follow the example of enthusiastic leaders who set and personally live up to high expectations.

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