Wellness

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.

Prior to joining ValuMarket - a family-owned chain of grocery stores in Louisville, Ky. - Amy Bisig had no experience in wellness programming. She clearly made a great impression on CEO Greg Newman, who hired her anyway to be the company's corporate wellness director.

This story is part of EBN's year-long BeneFIT Success series, which chronicles employers' and employees' wellness triumphs. Find the entire series online at ebn.benefitnews.com, keywords "benefit success series," and view the accompanying slideshow - featuring several of our profile subjects at various points in their wellness journeys - at ebn.benefitnews.com/slideshow. Learn how to submit your company's wellness story at the end of this article.

Hospital employees spend 10% more on health care, consume more medical services, and are generally sicker than the rest of the U.S. workforce, according to a study released on Monday.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania says the insurance-buying mandate in President Obama's health care overhaul in unconstitutional, the latest ruling over an issue likely to be taken up by the Supreme Court.

A U.S. appeals court handed President Barack Obama a victory for his signature health care law on Thursday, ruling against challenges by the state of Virginia and others seeking to invalidate the law as unconstitutional.

South Carolina does not want any more federal money to set up an insurance exchange, the state's health regulator said on Thursday, citing fears about the strings attached to the funds.

Starting Sept. 1, health insurance rates for the individual and small group markets will face stricter scrutiny to determine whether they are reasonable under new rules required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will review rates in nine states that lack the authority to adequately do so. The remaining 41 states will conduct their own reviews.

South Carolina does not want any more federal money to set up an insurance exchange, the state's health regulator said on Thursday, citing fears about the strings attached to the funds.

I always have had an ear for conspiracy theories. I still watch Oliver Stone’s “JFK” almost religiously and freeze frame during the shooting incidence. But when it comes to the health care exchanges created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, even I cannot start to consider a deep-seated conspiracy. The more I look at it, the more obvious the answer becomes: It's simple economics, that greatest leveler of them all.