Premise Health exists to meet the needs and desires of companies that choose to contract with Premise Health. This can lead to complex dynamics where the Wellness Coaching role is negotiated and redefined by the client rather than what it is designed to actually be by the internal Wellness department and the Wellness coaching certifying bodies. It may take somebody with a strong sense of authenticity, self-awareness, confidence, and a clear sense of knowing what is a healthful coaching strategy vs what is not (i.e. diet bets are not helpful for long-term success, but companies think they are helpful and request them). I personally found this constant negotiation of the role challenging, particularly because leadership must do what company requests or the contract is at risk.
I did not find leadership outside of the local clinic setting to be concerned with empowering the individuals working at the point-of-service. The priority, again, is the client and the optics of anything being unflattering of the image presented were paramount. If one knows all of this going in, one may be comfortable with either falling in line or slowly but surely transforming the structure from within. I found it unsettling and inauthentic and not worth continuing after about 3 years.
Lastly, I enjoy highly innovative strategies of delivering healthcare directly to an individual, but I learned that on a systems-level, offering healthcare onsite at companies can lead to companies offering lower-quality healthcare plans. Therefore, the companies shift the cost of onsite-healthcare to the employees anyway. While this will vary between companies that contract with onsite healthcare services like Premise, this is simply another form of capitalistic, profit-driven healthcare. As somebody who highly values the idea of eliminating a multi-payer system, I have learned this is not the best way to do it.
