Wellness

Guest blogger Linda K. Riddell offers practical advice to achieve what all employers want: more, better, faster wellness results.

People who have low well-being, a Healthway study concludes, are twice as likely to have high health care claims costs and four times more likely to visit the emergency room or take short-term disability leave.

Lafarge enlists the help of Dr. Michael Roizen from the Cleveland Clinic to transform the company’s culture of wellness.

Manatee County in Florida and Fond du Lac County in Wisconsin outline their wellness programs that tailor outreach to individual employee needs

How to use stories to sell wellness.

John Lamb shares the new math of employee benefits.

Sue Shepherd’s experiments with ‘Fodmaps’ diets are changing the way doctors and nutritionists look at unhealthy stomachs, and healthy ones too.

Fresno, Calif., would be first to test “health impact bonds” — a new means of financing preventive care programs where payers share savings with private investors.

Small businesses that have implemented health and wellness programs overwhelmingly report a positive impact on the bottom line. However, most of these employers still haven’t got the message.

Even as scientists predict DNA testing will transform medicine, advocates say that doctors and hospitals are ignoring existing tests that could help prevent thousands of cancer deaths and medical companies aren’t promoting their less-lucrative products enough.

Employers are keeping up their smoking-cessation efforts even as obesity grabs the headlines, says Provant’s Amy McAllister, and those who incentivize employees’ quit attempts are most likely to see health care costs reduced.

Rates of hearing loss in the workplace are rising rapidly and screenings and treatments to deal with the problem need to be strategized by employers who want to keep experienced workers.

Small businesses that have implemented health and wellness programs overwhelmingly report a positive impact on the bottom line. However, most of these employers still haven’t got the message.

Officials from Weight Watchers say that not only can their programs save companies money on health costs, the positive effects can spread to spouses and children.

Lifestyle, diet improvements may be linked to welcome decline in American adults’ cholesterol level.

Two health officials from Target try to bull’s-eye the company’s unique approach to health care, medicine and a culture of wellness, and they say it’s all about innovation.

The Association of American Medical Colleges says that nationwide the United States has a shortage of around 13,000 doctors, and it’s no longer just rural patients who are having to wait or travel for care.

Wellness plans, just like any other benefit an employer offers, are only effective if employees are aware of them and understand their features and advantages. Effective communication is critical to employee engagement, says BeAdvised contributor Doug Mantz.

Employee well-being obviously leads to lower health costs and absences, but a new Healthways study says employees with high well-being are also more likely to stay with their current employer.

By shifting employee assistance programs from addressing mental problems to improving mental and overall health, companies can remove much of the illness stigma and increase utilization.