Wellness

Historically, voluntary benefits have been dismissed by busy agents as more trouble than they are worth, but with the Affordable Care Act moving closer to full implementation, agents looking to keep existing clients and gain new business should give them a closer look. Still not convinced? Following are five reasons for incorporating voluntary benefits into client proposals: …

Since its passage in 2008, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act has largely just affected HIPAA notice requirements and wellness plans. But this month the EEOC settled its first case under the law and should serve as a reminder to employers about what it really means.

Nathan Schwegman was just 25 when his doctor told him he had a 3% chance of surviving the melanoma that had spread into his lungs and spine, soon leaving him in so much pain he could hardly move.

When choosing an employer, about 87% of prospective employees favor a company that has a wellness program in place, finds Virgin HealthMiles. But with the return on investment of such programs in question, will they continue to gain favor with employers as well?

Tech company Brocade uses its new campus to kick-start its wellness program and uses gamification to engage employees.

The Departments of Labor, Treasury and Health and Human Services issued what are being called final rules on employment-based wellness programs, and advocacy groups immediately weighed in on the changes, which were required under the Affordable Care Act.

Businesses in the U.S. won more freedom to charge higher insurance premiums to workers who don’t meet health goals, or reward those who shape up, under rules released by the Obama administration.

Companies such as Domino’s Pizza are introducing a new weight loss challenge program that doesn’t cost them anything and makes employees put some skin in the game.

By setting wellness exceptions, health care experts and insurance brokers find success with an integrated solution that goes beyond vendor selection

Unions and management at Seattle’s Swedish Medical Center collaborate to bring wellness programs to employees, with both vowing to take care of workers in the same way they take care of patients.

As more companies embrace consumer-driven health care models and prepare for the full implementation of health care reform, employees need voluntary benefits more than ever. This chart pack includes the latest data on voluntary benefits from the Aflac WorkForces Report and UBA’s Ancillary Products Survey.

Using health care analytics — sometimes called business intelligence — researchers and consultants are mining clinical and claims data to discover gold standards and establish best practices for prevention, treatment and self care and, ideally, help reduce waste, abuse and fraud. The goals are simple but have remained elusive.

Should patients undergoing broad DNA testing for a specific ailment be told of unexpected findings that signal risk of cancer or other serious diseases, even if they don’t request the information?

How three employers are making employee health a priority and seeing the results in their bottom line.

Children of such women were more likely to have scores in the lowest quartile for verbal ability, reading accuracy and reading comprehension than those whose mothers had sufficient iodine levels, according to the study published today.

Sixty-nine percent of employers tells the IFEBP that they definitely plan to provide employer-sponsored health care when exchanges begin in 2014; in 2012, only 46% of companies were willing to commit to that.

Lowering sodium intake, a drumbeat of doctors’ efforts to improve patient health, may have the opposite effect if taken to the extreme, scientists said.

“We may be jumping the gun,” says one expert. “While there is cognitive decline with normal aging, if we pull out people with brain disease, there’s not enough of a decline for us to worry about older peoples’ ability to make financial decisions.”

Wanting to leverage the new fitness facility to better help employees manage their work balance, Brocade launched a WellFit council made up of a cross-functional group of about 10 people.

Merck & Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Roche Holding AG have opened a new front against cancer with the next generation of experimental drugs that use the human immune system to seek and destroy tumor cells.