Wellness

The advantages of educating employees about their benefits through technology are many: The information transmitted to their Web browser or smart phone is always up to date, it's scalable to any population, yet allows an employer to individually tailor information to an employee.

Proud to say you have 80% participation in your company's wellness/health promotion program? Not to rain on your parade, but that number may be misleading, according to Dr. Jeanne L. Wendel, professor of economics at the University of Nevada (Reno).

Benefits advisers and HR executives know a lot about health and wellness programs. We read about them, discuss them, recommend them and - increasingly - implement and run them.

A number of Facebook communities have sprung up to lend emotional and moral support to patients with diabetes, but the sites can also house questionable and biased information, report researchers at Harvard University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

A new study concludes that online health improvement programs are scalable to an entire workforce but should account for gender differences to get the best results.

New research on disease management services deflates the argument that a comprehensive program might increase health care costs because of the increased services.

Here is some truly wonderful news to mark October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month: New research from Unum reveals that return-to-work rates for people on short-term disability claims due to breast cancer more than doubled from 2001 to 2007, rising from 28.8% to 59.4%.

I know you pros aren’t exactly raving fans of mental health parity, but I’m almost positive mental health charity is something you could get behind.

The gloves are coming off: employers are getting ready to dish some tough love about wellness, to convince workers that their very lives as well as the existence of company-sponsored benefits are on the line.

There’s no disputing the success of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser”: huge ratings, successful DVD sales and the fact that Jillian Michaels and Bill Germanakos now are household names.

Rising health care costs are driving more employers to take up the “sticks painted orange” approach to wellness, with 47% saying they either already use or plan to use financial penalties over the next three to five years for employees who do not participate in certain health improvement programs, according to new Hewitt numbers.

From booking flights to buying flowers, tax filing tips to TV favorites – there’s an app for that. Smartphone technology is quickly reaching a tipping point, now that users can get tunes, TV and text messages (simultaneously) on their cellphones.