Healthcare

As employee medical benefit costs escalate at double-digit levels worldwide, a new survey finds that wellness programs and health promotion strategies are gaining traction.

Talk about hogging the spotlight! Washington DC is driving the uproar around the reaction to the recent Supreme Court decision and all we’ve been seeing in the national media is coverage of the political ramifications. What does this mean to the political landscape? What’s Obama saying? Romney? Sure, the recent decision will define the road to election 2012 in November. It’s a landmark decision. We get it. …

Life combination products grew 56% in 2011, according to LIMRA's "2011 Individual Life Combination Products Annual Review." This was the third consecutive year of double-digit growth.

The growing trend among employers to enforce companywide social media policies has sparked the birth of the Password Protection Act of 2012. The new legislation prevents companies from requiring employees to provide access to their personal social networking accounts. While many companies may create a social media policy to protect their corporate reputation, a new Workplace Options and Public Policy Polling survey of American workers shows that companies who scrutinize their employees' personal accounts and social media activity may be doing more harm than good.

Although premenstrual syndrome is a well-known - if not well-understood - women's health condition, premenstrual dysphoric disorder is an even lesser-known related illness. PMDD is marked by many of the same symptoms as PMS - bloating, trouble sleeping and concentrating, irritability, headaches, backaches and food cravings - but to a more intense degree.

Patients who don't take their medication as prescribed is a billion-dollar problem, reports pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts in its 2011 Drug Trend Report. Nonadherence to prescription medication cost the U.S. health care system $317.4 billion in 2011. And that's just for treating medical complications - not the cost of lost productivity - that could have been avoided if patients had taken their medication as prescribed. The report shows that for many therapy classes, less than 50% of patients take their medication as prescribed.

American Heart Association statement puts dental industry on defensive about the link between oral health and heart health. Despite popular belief, the link was never 'cause-and-effect,' says one dental industry insider.

Executive leadership must relate to employees and communicate clearly how each person contributes to company success

Think about the simple act of driving to work in the morning. It involves perhaps 500 separate decisions, yet when we arrive we are hardly aware that we made a single one.

Leading U.S. organizations are turning to prevention-based employee health benefits to improve workforce health and reduce health care costs. Yet, according to a survey released by Virgin HealthMiles, there's a critical awareness gap threatening that strategy's success.