News
Obesity: Does it Start in the Womb?
A prominent nutritionist at Louisiana State University, Melinda Sothern, PhD, has developed that she believes explains how today's obesity epidemic began. Briefly, Sothern thinks that obesity can be tracked to the obstetrical practices of the 1950s and 1960s. During those decades, pregnant women were told to greatly limit their weight gain (to 20 pounds or less), to smoke cigarettes to control weight gain, and to bottle-feed their babies. View full article She points out that each of these guidelines was a disaster because babies who don't get enough nourishment in utero compensate by eating excessively as infants nicotine interferes with the brain pathways that control appetite, metabolic rate, and fat storage; babies of smoking mothers were nicotine recipients in utero bottle-feeding is more likely to lead to overweight infants than is breastfeeding Throw in the evolution of fast food today and, says Sothern, it all resulted in a lot of obese little girls during the 1970s, which became obese mothers and obese pregnant women...Read more »
Mayo Clinic, U of M researchers take to road to study workplace health
Ever wondered whether your workplace health initiatives are really making your workers healthier – and saving money for the health plan? Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota now have a laboratory on wheels that can travel to workplaces to help business owners answer the question...Read more »
Provant Launches New Program to Help Employees and Employers Lower Health Care Costs
Provant Health Solutions today announced the launch of an enhanced wellness and benefits advocacy program that helps employees improve their health and better understand their insurance benefits while addressing employers' concerns about rising health care costs. The new program, Navigate myHealthsm, combines a comprehensive wellness solution with easy access to health information, education, and personal decision tools with benefits assistance, medical expertise, and claims resolution...Read more »
Economic Toll of Diabetes Begins Early
Diabetes may be more than a hazard to health. A new study shows that young adults with the disease have lower lifetime earnings and fewer job prospects than their peers. The new research helps quantify the non-medical costs of a burdensome disease that afflicts nearly 10 percent of Americans. The study did not distinguish between Type 2 diabetes, which is closely linked to obesity and inactivity and is by far the most common form of the disease, and Type 1, sometimes called juvenile diabetes, which may be linked to immune, genetic and environmental factors...Read more »
Team Lotteries Motivate Employees to Participate in Wellness Programs
Corporate wellness programs are one way that employers can help improve the health of their employees and decrease spiraling health care costs. However, getting employees to participate in such programs can be challenging...Read more »
Healthcare Roadmap – Healthcare Strategy in a Post-Reform Environment
The ultimate goal of a wellness program is to create and sustain a culture of heath within an organization. Once this culture has been realized, only then can healthcare costs begin to flatten or in many instances, actually begin to reverse...Read more »
One in Three First-Time Participants in Laboratory-Based Wellness Program Learn of High Risk for Chronic Disease
One in three first-time participants in a company-sponsored, lab-based wellness program were not aware they were at high risk for a serious medical condition, according to an article published in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE..Read more »
Analysts forecast higher health costs for 2012
More than half of U.S. companies plan to charge employees more for their health insurance in 2012, a recent National Business Group on Health survey found. Nearly four in 10 said they’ll increase employee deductibles..Read more »
Would workplace safety benefit from wellness programs?
Want fewer injuries at work? Perhaps your company should encourage employees to join weight loss and exercise programs. That’s because a recent Australian study shows obesity usually increases the risk of injury and tends to complicate recovery. Overall, the researchers found: - Obesity negatively affects balance and posture, increasing the risk of falls - Obesity is associated with overuse syndromes (ex.: carpal tunnel syndrome), work-related injury and osteoarthritis..Read more »
Towers Watson Study: Investing in Workforce Health Generates Higher Productivity
As Canadian organizations search for ways to improve workforce productivity, they are trying new approaches to combat the double-whammy of rising health costs and increased employee absence, stress and disability - and some are succeeding more quickly than others...Read more »
Workplaces Feel The Impact of Obesity
From cubicle farms to auto factories, accommodating larger and heavier employees has become a fact of life. One in three U.S. adults is obese, and researchers say the impact on business can be boiled down to a number: $1,000 to $6,000 in added cost per year for each obese employee, the figure rising along with a worker's body mass index. Studies estimate the total cost of obesity to U.S. employers — including lost productivity — at $73 billion a year. But that figure doesn't include some of the smaller ways the workplace is adapting...Read more »
Business or Pleasure, Health is Hot for Hotels
Professionals traveling for business don’t have to leave their wellness efforts behind at the office. Thankfully, many hotels are starting to catch on. Here are seven trends to look for when booking your next business trip...Read more »
Employers: Higher Wellness Incentive is Reform’s ‘Most Beneficial’ Element
A recent survey finds the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s “most beneficial” measure is its increase in the maximum allowable incentive used for worksite wellness, according to employers representing various industries...Read more »
Going ‘Global’ with Wellness
The prevalence of corporate wellness programs is growing in different parts of the world for different reasons. Multinational corporations have the challenge of creating strategic goals that are meaningful and measurable and can be implemented by business units worldwide...Read more »
Open Enrollment and Wellness Rollout
Consultants agree company wellness initiatives should kickoff separately from a company’s open enrollment period. However, it can still be done with careful planning...Read more »
Wellness on the Web
The Internet – online portals and social media – can be a powerful wellness tool when used as part of a comprehensive health promotion strategy that includes other major touch points (i.e. face-to-face and telephonic communication)...Read more »
Moving company wellness from piecemeal efforts to a comprehensive strategy
The current health care environment is forcing businesses to move from tactical wellness initiatives to efforts that are part of a larger, strategic plan. Strategic wellness requires leadership buy-in, big picture goals with incremental milestones, communication using multiple mediums, behavioral interventions, proper measurement, and program refinement...Read more »
Provant Renews NCQA ‘Wellness & Health Promotion With Performance Reporting’ Accreditation for Third Consecutive Time
It is the third consecutive voluntary audit completed by Provant since 2009. “This achievement assures our clients and prospective clients of the validity of the outcome measures and reports we regularly provide them,” said CEO & Founder Heather A. Provino. “Our continued accreditation demonstrates Provant’s commitment to adhere to best practice principles.”..Read more »
Choosing a wellness vendor: Tips for finding the right match
Most of the nation’s businesses offer some form of health promotion program. Finding the right wellness partner can be a challenge, since providers often bundle and price their services differently. Here are some major points benefit professionals should consider when weighing their wellness options...Read more »
Planning Your Retirement: Invest in Your Health
By getting healthier, you might save a lot of money over your lifetime...Read more »
CEO buy-in on wellness programs improves
Senior management’s support of improving employee health increased to 42 percent in 2010, compared to 6 percent in 2009, according to a survey by Willis North America...Read more »
Are Employers Prepared to Enforce Wellness Programs If Employees Start to Slack Off?
Smoking and obesity cost employers a significant amount of money, say some lawyers; so much that many businesses have embraced wellness plans...Read more »
Wellness and workplace productivity
Fitness and nutrition are hot topics these days, due in part to a soaring obesity rate in the United States, and workplace wellness is no exception...Read more »
Wellness programs and spending on the rise
A joint survey sponsored by Fidelity Investments and the National Business Group on Health finds that nearly 75 percent of mid to large size employers offered 19 or more health promotion programs...Read more »
Incentive spend per worker can hit $3k
Employers spend about $220 on each employee, up from $163 in 2009, according to a new survey released by Buck Consultants...Read more »
Provant's Annual Six Sigma Review Indicates High Level of Service Delivery Accuracy for National Programming
The national wellness provider's commitment to Six Sigma ensures high quality performance for its many clients nationwide. Six Sigma is a popular business management standard used by many organizations, including Fortune 500s..Read more »
Blinding them with science: More than a cliché, company culture is a business driver with metrics to support its impact
Recent findings on company culture and workers’ perceptions of it make clear that employers can no longer afford to overlook company culture as a key corporate objective..Read more »
Put down the 10-foot pole: Wellness is not a poisonous snake
Companies no longer can afford to sit on the sidelines and play the reluctant spectator. Health care costs won't magically decrease...Read more »
Financial incentives in wellness programs paying off, Mercer reports
For the second year in a row, medical plan cost increases in 2010 were about two percentage points lower, on average, among employers with extensive health management programs than among those employers offering limited or no health management programs, according to Mercer’s "National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans."..Read more »
Nearly Half of Employers Plan to Enhance Preventive Care Benefits in Response to PPACA
While 60% of employer plans currently offer free coverage for some or all preventive care services, 46% of employers plan to improve or enhance their preventive care benefits in response to new health-care reform regulations as defined by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA), according to the results of a HighRoads survey of larger employers...Read more »
Provant Health Solutions Appoints Vice President of Business Development
Provant hires John Jurich to cultivate wellness partnerships with large employers, benefits consultants and other organizations..Read more »
Provant Health Solutions Appoints Chief Growth Officer
Provant hires health care veteran Nancy Brock to develop and promote comprehensive wellness strategies...Read more »
PPACA makes strange bedfellows: Medicare, corporate wellness
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is required to provide, with no co-payments or deductibles, Medicare beneficiaries with an annual wellness visit and a personalized prevention plan...Read more »
Dieting for dollars? More U.S. employees trying it
Many employers are betting they can find your price. At least a third of U.S. companies offer financial incentives, or are planning to introduce them, to get their employees to lose weight or get healthier in other ways...Read more »
