St. Patrick's Catholic Church on Church Street in Fairfax will be closing in the summer of 2011. Photographed on Wednesday, March 10, 2010. The parish will be combining with the parish of John XXIII Catholic Church in Cedar Rapids because of the shortage of priests. (Julie Koehn/The Gazette)

FAIRFAX — For more than 50 years, Vernon Cerveny has played the organ suring Sunday Mass at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Fairfax.

With news that the parish will be dissolved and the building closed to form a merger into a new parish with John XXIII in Cedar Rapids, Cerveny knows his days as organist are limited.

“Things change,” he said.

Members of both parishes learned after Mass last Sunday that their church bodies would be dissolved and merged into one larger parish, to be named Blessed John XXIII and housed, eventually, in the building that now holds John XXIII at 8100 Roncalli Dr. SW, in Cedar Rapids. The Rev. Dustin Vu, pastor for both parishes, held an informational meeting and forum Wednesday at St. Patrick’s in Fairfax, and will hold another on Sunday at John XXIII.

From a business standpoint, the merger will help the Archdiocese of Dubuque reduce duplication of services and more efficiently serve the parishes as the number of priests continues to decline.

From the parishioner’s standpoint, it’s tough.

Kevin Rigdon of Ely is a member of St. Patrick’s and was one of two representatives on the archdiocese’s pastoral planning task force, which studied options for the Cedar Rapids area as the number of priests continues to decline. On Wednesday, he explained the job and the options the task force was given.

Of the five options presented, Rigdon said, four included the closure of St. Patrick’s.

 “One of the most difficult things I had to say was that this task force was going to eventually result in this parish closing,” he said. “It was pretty obvious to me that that was already in the cards.”

Cerveny said he wasn’t surprised by the announcement last week.

 “They’ve been talking about this for a long time,” he said. “Fairfax isn’t the first one to close, and it won’t be the last one.”

Vu has served both parishes for just under two years. He said he’s confident all of the parishioners will get through the grieving process and move forward.

 “The people of St. Patrick’s are grieving, and so are the people of John XXIII,” he said. “A lot of time and discussion went into this merger, and both parishes are going to be closed. It’s going to be an adjustment to bring St. Patrick’s and John XXIII together.”

He said losing one’s parish, even when it’s expected, is much like losing a member of the family.

 “When you have a person in your family who is dying, you know it’s coming but it still very hard when it happens,” he said. “The reality is different, it’s harder.”

Although it will be difficult at first, Vu said he is confident the parishes will be able to come together as one.

 “I have strong hope in people. I have strong faith in people. our people are good people,” he said. “There’s a lot of good people and people with strong faith. Their faith strengthens me, their faith inspires me and their love for their parish is obvious.

 “We acknowledge people’s pain, we acknowledge their adjustments and we will walk in faith with them.”

“We were a little worried when the bottom fell out of the economy, but we’ve been pleased that employers are not dropping out,” said Jennifer Musick, chief health and wellness officer at Benefit Solutions in Cedar Rapids.

Benefit Solutions offers health screening, risk assessments and health coaching, all of which are becoming more and more popular among medium and large businesses in the Corridor in the war on holding down health care costs, a significant expense in a company’s budget.

Health Solutions employee Eileen Foxhoven, left, gets CRST Human Resources Manager Angie Wegmann signed in to take the health assessment survey during wellness screening at the business Sept. 16. (Jim Slosiarek/EdgeBusiness)

Study after study proves the return on investment is worthwhile.

A study by Health2 Resources in Vienna, Va., found that 83 percent of companies that measured the return on investment of their health and wellness programs had a return of better than $1 for every dollar spent.

Musick said her company has seen an average of 5 to 1 return for employers who have started doing health screenings.

“We have groups that have seen it higher than that,” she said.

The company calculates the return of investment based on the savings of excess medical costs of a person who is considered low, moderate or high risk, Musick said.

A healthy employee will spend about $1,500 in medical expenses in a year. An employee with three to four risk factors will likely spend about $2,000. An employee with five or more risk factors will spend more than $4,000, she said.

That doesn’t even count the “soft costs” an employer can recognize from having healthier employees like reduced absenteeism, which also are important, she said.

Musick said Benefit Solutions has worked with some companies who after doing health screenings, risk assessments and health coaching have moved from private insurance to self-funded insurance because their health care expenses dropped significantly.

“A (benefit) consultant will say they feel better about a company going self funded because they know they are doing something to mitigate their risks,” Musick said.

One employer who had worked with Benefit Solutions for several years was able to get 93 percent of its employees into a healthy range compared to 54 percent the previous year because they started touching base with healthy employees as well as employees with more health risks. As a result, they were able to prevent some healthy employees from falling back into some old habits that could put them at risk again, she said. The company still saw a 2.5 to 1 return on their investment.

Musick said that’s Benefit Solutions latest push — to keep healthy employees healthy.

“Employers understand getting those who are high risk healthy, but it is tough to think about keeping healthy people healthy… but if you look at the data, that’s your best ROI,” she said.

“Let’s face it. Life changes. People get married they have children. They change jobs. They don’t exercise as much,” Musick said. “There aren’t people who don’t want to be healthy, but life takes its toll. Things change and before you know it, you are more overwhelmed and less healthy.”

When it comes to getting employees to participate, employers who use incentives typically see better participation, Musick said.

“Incentives are huge,” she said. “The best incentive is to offer (an insurance) premium reduction. Those who use that health care plan as an incentive usually see a greater than 80 percent participation rate, so it works.”

“When it comes to health and wellness, it’s that little carrot that works. Once people start participating, they see the value and they don’t have any regrets about participating,” Musick said.

But even gift cards are working in this recession. Many employers are offering a $50 Visa gift card and getting 80 percent participation, Musick said. In previous years that typically only generated a 50 percent participation rate, she said.

With health insurance premiums continuing to rise, employers have found tackling employee health and wellness a must. The health insurance premiums in Iowa climbed by an average of 11.1 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to the 2009 Iowa Employer Benefits Study by David P. Lind & Associates of Clive. That’s well above pace of the previous two years.

The jump brought the average family monthly premium for all medical plans offered by Iowa employers to $963. The average single monthly premium rose to $370.

Vector Corp. in Marion was looking for a way to hold down health care costs and improve the health of its employees when it signed up with Benefit Solutions to offer health screening and risk assessments for its employees this year. It offered employees a $50 gift card to participate and generated a 78 percent participation rate. Vector is a manufacturer of customized equipment for the pharmaceutical industry.

While it is too soon to determine what the company’s return on investment will be, it is already calling the program a success.

“We had two individuals who would be considered diabetic and didn’t know it,” said Pat Heyer, human resource manager at Vector. The assessment likely saved them from a serious problems down the road, she said.

Heyer said the company particularly likes the health coaching aspect of the program.

“We looked at different wellness programs, but from what we’ve seen, that personal touch seems to be the key,” she said.

Heyer said they’ve had employees who have lost anywhere from 5 pounds to 25 pounds.

“People are really enthusiastic. They are meeting with their coaches and not forgetting,” Heyer said. “Coaches are saying that cholesterol levels are going down along with their blood pressure, which also makes it a success.”

Vector is also holding various exercise challenges, promoting five servings of fruit and vegetables a day by bringing in monthly fruits and vegetable trays for employees. It also reimburses a portion of an employee’s registration cost for different athletic events like a 5K run or walk-a-thon.

“The more I hear about the health care debate, the more I think that you can change the system, but you really need to change behaviors. That’s what we’re trying to do here,” Heyer said.