Health and wellness

Moving beyond biggest loser-type competions and step challenges, employer-based programs are entering a new phase that make use of targeted incentives to create specific outcomes.

Plan sponsors can take immediate steps to help hospitals ensure that employees, dependents -- and all patients –are in better shape after they leave the hospital than when they went in.

With rising healthcare costs hurting employers, adviser Mark Gaunya says it’s time for quality reform.

The international environmental consulting team offers employees access to mental health therapy 24/7 through its online Learn to Live system.

Targeted incentives and automated employee follow-up can improve outcomes.

Tiered incentives may encourage more workers to get active, but for employers they represent an increase in administrative overhead, says David Contorno, CEO of Lake Norman Benefits.

How the concept of paying employees to encourage certain behaviors is making its way into other areas of benefits that advisers need to know about.

Hospital market power, not technologies or regulation, is behind escalating prices, says benefits expert Joseph Jenkins, M.D.

While plan sponsors and others debate whether wellness programs actually save healthcare costs, a more pressing concern for employers is the real price of poor workplace health.

Steve Miller, the pharmacy benefit manager’s chief medical officer, addresses the key cost drivers and what the PBM is doing to guard against increases.

Hospital market power, not regulation or new medical technologies is behind escalating prices, says benefits expert Joseph Jenkins, M.D.

Generic drugs are usually significantly cheaper for plan sponsors than brand-name drugs. Here’s a look at 10 drugs coming off patent in 2016. And although the FDA hasn’t yet approved generics for many of the following blockbuster drugs that are coming off patent this year, in most cases there are generics in the pipeline, according to Dickson Data Blog.

Steve Miller, the pharmacy benefit manager’s chief medical officer, addresses the key cost drivers and what the PBM is doing to guard against increases.

Making sure the employer has an account manager dedicated to the effort is a key to success, says David Roddenberry.

Employees are bombarded with information about health, yet Americans are getting heavier. For employers, this translates into higher healthcare costs, increased sick days and reduced productivity.

Michael Thompson discusses how the National Business Coalition on Health plans to address consolidation in the benefits industry and a proposal for a well-being institute.

The looming Cadillac tax is causing companies to be cautious when it comes to contributing to workers’ health savings accounts.

Employers are familiar with wellness incentives, but the concept of paying employees to encourage certain behaviors is making its way into other areas of benefits.

More employees are distracted from their job responsibilities as soaring college loans add to their financial pressures.

An increased focus on health, combined with unprecedented access to information, has this group of workers more interested in workplace wellness and more likely to stay at their jobs because of it.