Wellness

In this series, EBN profiles three companies with winning wellness programs. Whirlpool Corporation, the global manufacturer of major home appliances, began its exploration into wellness in 2009.

Baird has a rich 95-year history of providing financial advice and services to its clients and being a best place to work for its associates, earning it ninth spot on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2014. It has been included in the magazine’s national rankings since 2004, which was right around the same time it started its first wellness program.

Benefit managers looking to get more training in wellness have a new option with an online program from the Institute for Wellness Education.

The IRS has issued its first adjustment to the ACA definition of “affordability” for the 2015 plan year. Building a solid ACA compliance plan with your employer clients means understanding the act clearly provides for such changes.

The AMA’s designation of obesity as a disease promises to gain more medical coverage for treatment options, but could cost your employer clients in the short-term.

Commentary: Meditation is not just some quirky, hippy philosophy; it is actually grounded in physiology. Some companies have taken these benefits so seriously that they have dedicated quiet rooms within the office so employees can meditate.

Commentary: Here are some tips from blogger Jeff Hyman on how to ensure employers’ wellness programs are on track, including top-level buy-in and consistency.

Opinion: While some thought that expensive, broad-based health screening programs were a thing of the past, the AHA's policies may support practices that should have been abandoned long ago.

Wellness and retirement educational tools are paramount in an ever-changing landscape of employee benefits, and Mercer has taken a unique approach in its newest endeavor, Mercer Benefits U.

Funding for Social Security Disability Insurance is set to run out by 2016, and if no further action from Congress is taken, SSDI recipients could see a 20% reduction in benefits.

Over the next decade, the number of cancer survivors is expected to increase by 30%, and improvements in both detection and treatment have led cancer to become, in some cases, more of a chronic condition than a terminal illness.

Employers are spending more money to keep their employees healthy, even if it means sacrificing other benefits.

The National Business Group on Health this week recognized 63 U.S. employers for their continued efforts in promoting healthy work environments and encouraging employee wellness.

Wondering if your wellness program is delivering the goods or just delivering good profits to your vendor? Intel and GE’s joint venture Validation Institute will tell you. Think of it as a new sheriff in the wild west of wellness ROI, armed with science and a calculator.

A nearly 7% spike in health care costs in 2015 can be attributed to a revitalized economy, the modernization of health care technology and the drastic increase in specialty drug use.

The ACA has increased incentives for employees to quit smoking, but employers are wondering where e-cigarettes fit into the equation.

More than four years before the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, a county government in the state of Washington took action on its skyrocketing health care costs, becoming one of the first counties in the country to tie out-of-pocket health care expenses to participation in wellness activities.

As business leaders and government officials cope with surging health care costs, one global think tank is estimating that up to $303 billion can be saved through a healthier workforce should chronic disease prevention efforts in the workplace become the norm.

Commentary: Blogger Sam Fleet submits that in order for a wellness initiative to be truly comprehensive, benefit advisers and their employer clients must look at other components of employees’ lives.

Virtually all large employers are committed to conventional wellness programs. Because of this market saturation, wellness vendors and their commercial partners, benefits consultants, are now setting their sights on smaller employers. These groups would do well to learn what hasn’t worked in wellness and avoid wellness programs built around health risk appraisals, biometrics, and preventive medical care.