Wellness

Wellness and health management programs can be scaled to fit the needs of companies of almost any size, as long as you have the data to help identify what the needs are. In today’s BeAdvised Mercer’s George Lane shares three simple programs that will not only heighten awareness of health issues to employees but will send the message that their employer’s concern for them extends beyond what’s included in their job description.

Between 2003 and 2006, Standard Textile – a company that manufactures textiles and apparel for a variety of industries, including health care and hospitality – watched its benefits costs per employee jump by 60%. That got the attention of the CEO and the company embarked on a more aggressive health and wellness journey.

Between 2003 and 2006, Standard Textile – a company that manufactures textiles and apparel for a variety of industries, including health care and hospitality – watched its benefits costs per employee jump by 60%. That got the attention of the CEO and the company embarked on a more aggressive health and wellness journey.

What better way to take lessons of branding a wellness program than from one of the top-branded companies in the world, Procter and Gamble? The producers of timeless product lines like Old Spice and Tide recently introduced Vibrant Living, P&G’s in-house line of benefits specially designed to help employees live healthier.

While more companies today are focusing on wellness programs as a way to cut health care costs, Ed Jones, president of commercial division at ValueOptions, told attendees at the Institute for Health and Productivity Management conference that adding behavioral health clinicians to the mix can yield even greater returns on overall employer investments in health care and wellness.

China may be on the forefront of economic development, but it has a long way to go in providing health care for its hundreds of millions of workers, according to Hocking Cheng, managing director for health management solutions in China for Aetna. Such health care woes may haunt U.S. multinationals that have to contend with employee wellness issues at home and abroad.

Clients that measure every task in terms of immediate ROI are not getting to the heart of the corporate wellness program - the health of their employees.

Almost all efforts to drive participation in wellness programs focus on motivation. Initiatives like inspiring messages, rewards and incentives, attempts to "make it fun," readiness-to-change surveys and activity tracking often try to address what common sense tells us is missing: People simply lack the motivation to change.

Would hospitals and health care providers really do a better job if they were paid based on outcomes? A recent push from the federal government and the business community alludes that pay for performance initiatives is an effective health care strategy, but a new study out shows that based on actual outcomes, it is not.

Employers across America face unprecedented challenges in providing competitive employee benefits while still controlling costs. Public-sector employers face additional obstacles from revenue shortfalls and increased public scrutiny of government spending. Yet employers, both public and private, have access to many proven solutions that can help them control and even reduce costs while continuing to offer a strong benefits package. …

Building a culture of health at any organization can be challenging, but developing a supportive workplace not only stunts escalating health care costs, positive tactics engage employees and guide them to make healthy decisions. A health director from Dow Chemical shared how leadership buy-in and individual accountability thrust her company toward a healthy culture.

In 2002, the most expensive health conditions were heart disease, cancer, trauma, mental disorders and pulmonary conditions. These conditions plague employers, and last week, leaders in business met to discuss ways to manage them affectively to not only get a healthier workforce, but a more cost-efficient one.

Employers want more timely access to reporting and more transparency from their wellness vendors, according to a recent survey of 430 employers conducted by OptumHealth.

While there is still much discussion about whether and how incentives really work for engaging employees in wellness programs, most companies still plan on increasing the dollar value of the incentives they offer. That’s according to a survey of 139 employers from Fidelity and the National Business Group on Health released last week to analyze the growth of health-improvement programs in the workplace, which usually entail condition-management services (e.g., managing insulin treatments), lifestyle-management services (e.g., weight-loss advice) and health-risk management services (e.g., onsite flu shots).

It was a sweet moment for John Alexander the day his eight-year-old daughter put her arms around him and said: "Dad! I can reach my arms around you now!" The 41-year-old IT account manager for Sprint had been overweight for years, suffering from high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Two of his brothers had died from heart attacks. Keeping up with his two young daughters had become more difficult. He knew he had to do something.

Avalanches seem to happen randomly, out of the blue. But to experienced skiers and climbers, the warning signs are obvious. Similarly, people with asymptomatic preconditions can appear healthy, but the warning signs of impending chronic conditions are there if you know what to look for.

During carb-laden lunches in the IBM cafeteria over 10 years ago, a master inventor and his colleagues decided they were eating too much. From this Pavlovian inspiration, Mike Paolini submitted a patent for a technology that coordinates an automatic wellness rebate program.

A leading group of U.S. doctors is trying to tackle the costly problem of excessive medical testing, hoping to avoid more government intervention in how they practice.

“Stand up.” The audience stands. “Sit down.” The audience sits. “Now stand up again.” An audience member mutters under his breath, “No way,” while Fikry Isaac, chief medical officer for wellness and prevention at Johnson & Johnson makes his commands to make a point. Wherever your employees are — a meeting, a desk or at a conference, simple movement can go a long way to create a corporate culture where health is truly valued and lived.

After a lengthy debate, Walmart decided that eggs are indeed healthy.