Wellness

In 2009, the Civil Service Employees Association Employee Benefit Fund was at a crossroads. The benefit fund, which provides dental and vision benefits for more than 300,000 public employee union members and their dependents in New York State, was facing a double-digit spike in its health insurance costs and seemed resigned to renewing a policy with an insurer that was not meeting the needs of the fund's 60 employees.

Just one generation ago, HIV/AIDS was regarded as a relentless and indiscriminate killer. In the early 1980s, when the federal government first started tracking the disease, a newly diagnosed patient had a maximum two-year life expectancy, and HIV/AIDS related illness was the second-leading cause of death in American men. Today, it's not even in the top 10.

What is it? No, not your vending machine/cafeteria options. Not employee engagement (or lack thereof).

Diane Carruba hasn't been in the same car with her husband in a very long time. She doesn't want them to die together. She doesn't know what would happen to her son. A member of the sandwich generation, Carruba is the primary caregiver to her son - who suffers from ADHD, as well as a seizure disorder that has led to a developmental disability - and also cares for her mother, who is newly diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease

What do your clients want from their corporate wellness programs? If the first response is lower health care costs, they might be in for a rude awakening. While prescribing a long-term solution, you offer your clients a healthy dose of reality and set the expectation that there is no instant cure.

Athletic trainers may have had their roots on the playing field, but the profession has branched out. Large employers such as Toyota, General Motors, Delta Air Lines and Boeing have used athletic trainers for years to prevent and treat injuries on the production line and manufacturing floor.

Historically, wellness has been associated primarily with weight loss, and since many of us slip right into a food coma come Thanksgiving and don't emerge until multiple holiday parties have left us loosening a belt notch or two, it's no coincidence that EBA features our annual Wellness Challenge issue on the eve of resolution season

When Emily Wert decided to undertake EBA's 2011Wellness Challenge, a 12-week personal health coaching program, she didn't have the usual expectations about what she would learn or accomplish.

As U.S. companies continue to ask workers to shoulder a greater burden of the cost of health care consumers want their employers to do more to help them improve their health and get the most from their employer-provided health and wellness plans, according to a new survey from Aon Hewitt, The Futures Company and the National Business Group on Health.

Access to paid sick days could save $1 billion in medical costs annually, according to a report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research. Currently, more than 44 million American workers do not have access to paid sick days, and more are unable to use time off to take care of sick children or other family members.

A series of interactive computer exercises designed to encourage healthy eating and physical activity didn't help keep middle school students from gaining extra weight, according to a study in the Netherlands.

More than two-thirds of wellness plan participants find the health care system easier to navigate with the help of an adviser, according to an OptumHealth case study.

As employee benefit budgets remain tight, employers are adopting plan design changes that reduce drug benefit coverage and improve pricing, according to the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute.

Employers implementing wellness programs not only will help lower health-related costs, but their employees will be more engaged and productive while on the clock.

Nationwide Better Health, part of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, closed its doors Sept. 1 after five years in the wellness and productivity business. The company announced on May 25 that Nationwide would sell its productivity services to Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc. and wind down disease management and wellness programs.

Good news for advisers selling disability income insurance: Sales of traditional and voluntary DI are headed upward. But even more exciting is the undercurrent of optimism and excitement among major insurers and disability management experts about the future of disability benefit programs.

This article is the latest installment in EBN's BeneFIT Success series, which chronicles employers' and employees' wellness triumphs. The entire series is available at ebn.benefitnews.com, keywords "benefit success series."

Colorado is America's healthiest state, right? Wrong, says Andrew Sykes, chairman of Health at Work Wellness Actuaries. It's a myth and was one of the biggest challenges Sykes had to overcome when he was hired by Brighton School District - a school district northeast of Denver - to help implement a wellness program at Brighton's 18 schools and other worksites.

Imagine, in the 21st century - with all of the medical, scientific and technological advances and accomplishments our country has seen - a generation of children that is at risk of not outliving their parents. Not because of a national plague or famine. Quite the contrary, the current generation is at risk of dying prematurely because so many of them are overweight or obese.

Recently, Ambrose held its first employee health and wellness fair. We're a bit different from most organizations in that we are a PEO, a professional employer organization, meaning that companies - mostly smaller ones - contract with us to outsource their HR and payroll functions, including benefits. We wanted to host a health and wellness fair for our clients' employees, but didn't want to charge them for it. So we faced the challenge of conducting a health and wellness fair at minimal-to-no cost.