Headlines about "Health plan costs - preventive care"

Gathered from the web by the editors at BenefitsLink.com.
You don't have to be an 800-pound gorilla to create a better health plan for employees ? but it sure helps
Self-funded companies can do a lot to improve employee health through wellness programs and creating 'micro health delivery systems' ... with goals tailored to the firm's employee population. (Thompson - Smart HR Manager)

Using the Whole-Family Approach for Multiple Generations of Employee Families to Encourage Healthy Lifestyles
"Some companies are encouraging multiple generations of employee families -- from grandparents to grandchildren -- to embrace healthy lifestyles. While most programs target employees' children, they are more of a strategic business decision than a warm and fuzzy benefit." (Human Resource Executive Online)

Culture Key to Work-Life Programs: AOL Benefits Build Culture of Trust
"In the larger world of work-life and family-friendly programs, we have found that company culture is one of the main factors that determines the success of these programs and that, in turn, work-life programs can be a tool for a real cultural revolution." (Employee Benefit News)

Legal Considerations When Implementing On-Site Clinics
"The issues in implementing an on-site clinic may seem obvious: Finding a service provider; installing an appropriate facility; and addressing employee access during work hours. However, there are less obvious but equally important compliance concerns that arise when an on-site clinic is implemented." (Employee Benefit News)

[Opinion] Cleveland Clinic: 'Why We Won't Hire Smokers'
"Job candidates are told that the offer is subject to a nicotine-free urine test. If a candidate tests positive for nicotine, the offer is rescinded, and he or she is offered a free tobacco-cessation program and may reapply in 90 days. . . . At Cleveland Clinic, we have a unique perspective on the burden of chronic disease. We not only treat disease, but we also play a vital role in educating patients and employees about lifestyle choices. It is only right to practice what we preach." (USATODAY.com)

[Opinion] Not Hiring Smokers Crosses Privacy Line
"Treating smoking, in essence, like illegal drug use takes . . . employers down a dangerous road, one that extends far too deeply into the private lives of prospective workers." (USATODAY.com)

The Double Facetted Nature of Health Investments: Implications for Equilibrium and Stability in a Demand-for-Health Framework
"A number of behaviours influence health in a non-monotonic way. Physical activity and alcohol consumption, for instance, may be beneficial to one's health in moderate but detrimental in large quantities. We develop a demand-for-health framework that incorporates the feature of a physiologically optimal level." (National Bureau of Economic Research; paid subscription or individual purchase required to retrieve fulltext)

WellPoint to Increase Primary-Care Reimbursement
"Beginning in the summer, WellPoint will increase reimbursement for primary-care services -- offering those physicians a fee increase of around 10% with the chance of additional payments that could bolster what they receive for covered patients by as much as 50% -- in an attempt to lower acute-care costs, the WSJ reports." (The Wall Street Journal)

Wellness Program Approved for Oregon State Employees
"Oregon's Public Employees' Benefit Board . . . voted to give $155,000 to the Oregon Public Health Division to help fund its Wellness@Work program." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

More Employers Embracing On-Site Health Clinics
"A 2011 study by the professional-services company Towers Watson and the nonprofit National Business Group on Health found that 23% of the midsized and large U.S. employers they surveyed had on-site health clinics and that another 12% planned to establish an on-site clinic in 2012." (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Walking Your Employees to Higher Productivity
"We combine Walkingspree with annual online health risk assessments, on site health screens, and monthly Living Right mailings to our teammates. We consider it a 'Win, Win' program that continues to create a lot of 'buzz' in the workplace, and promotes activity-based 'fun.'" (Advantage Business Media)

Wellness Incentives, Equity, and the Five Groups Problem
"Wellness incentives are an increasingly popular way for employers to encourage participation in prevention programs, which can both improve workers' overall health and reduce costs. Employees may receive a discount on premium costs for participating in an exercise, weight loss, or smoking cessation program, for instance. Or, alternatively, incentives, such as premium reductions, may be linked to meeting certain targets, like appropriate body mass index (BMI) or blood pressure. With provisions in the Affordable Care Act designed to increase employers' ability to use wellness incentives, some are questioning whether these programs may lead to equity concerns." (The Commonwealth Fund)

An Alabama County Commission Considers Employee Health Care Clinic to Reduce Costs
"Companies that run workplace clinics often tout returns on investment as high as 7 to 1, according to a 2010 study published by the center. However, returns of 2 to 1 are more common, according to one consultant quoted in the study." (Alabama Live LLC)

Employers not Offering Wellness Benefits Desired, According to Survey
"The top four benefits employees would most like to see their employer offer are fitness center discounts (25%), on-site preventive screenings (22%) and access to wellness experts such as nutritionists (21%) and onsite fitness facilities (19%)." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

The Principal Financial Well-Being Index: Wellness Summary 4th Quarter 2011
"This is one in a series of quarterly studies to identify and track changes in the workplace of small and mid-sized (growing) businesses." (Principal Financial Services, Inc.)

Aetna Wellness Programs Available for Purchase on Best Buy Shelves
"The Hartford, Conn.-based health plan is selling credit-card-size vouchers at Chicago-area Best Buy stores, redeemable for access to online coaching programs. The pilot program stemmed from Aetna's interest in trying out retail sales of its wellness program and from Best Buy's launch of health and fitness sections in select stores in late 2011[.]" (American Medical Association)

How to Combat the Effects of Obesity on Your Business and Improve Your Employees' Health
"Biometrics can provide a snapshot of the health of your employees. If 75 percent of your work force is classified as obese, you are looking at a very different solution than if that were 5 percent. The higher the percentage of obese employees, the more those people are costing your business." (Smart Business Network Inc.)

The Benefits That a Corporate Wellness Program Can Have on Your Business
"It is no secret that a regular routine of fitness and dieting can have an overwhelmingly beneficial effect on an individual's health and wellness. Not only does fitness play a large role in disease prevention, healthy living and weight loss, but it can also influence the mood, motivation and productivity in a person's day-to-day life." (Walkingspree)

2012 Workplace Trends Report: Integration, Flexibility and Wellness Top Drivers of Employee Engagement
"Employees are looking to organizations for tools and resources to help them simplify their lives, stay healthy and balanced, and bring their 'whole self' to work as these continue to be top drivers of engagement. Employee engagement, productivity, brand image and loyalty continue to be relevant measures of success." (Sodexo, Inc.)

$4.1 Million Health and Wellness Center Being Built for Chattanooga Employees
"[The administrator of personnel for Chattanooga] said the health clinics, the pharmacy and the fitness center all have seen heavy use, and the city has seen savings of more than $10 million over the last five years in health care costs." (Chattanooga Publishing Company, Inc.)

What You Need to Know About Starting a Workplace Wellness Program
"Through its WorkWell training series, the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce is helping local businesses create wellness programs that are good for employees' individual health, workplace attitude and even the company pocketbook." (Southeast Missourian)

Programs for Helping Children and Adolescents Achieve and Maintain a Healthier Weight
"As one of the many outgrowths of the sweeping federal health care law, health insurers and employers must now pay the cost of screening children for obesity and providing them with appropriate counseling." (The New York Times; free registration required)

States Will Spend Less Than 2% of Tobacco-Tax and Tobacco-Settlement Billions on Anti-Smoking Programs this Year
"The 2010 federal health law expanded coverage for smoking cessation, though not to the degree that advocates wanted. Under the law, states must provide free tobacco-cessation coverage for all pregnant women in their Medicaid programs. But anti-smoking activists would like broader Medicaid coverage requirements: Although 19% of adults smoke overall, 31% of those living below the poverty line are smokers." (Los Angeles Times)

Ohio Hospital Touts Workplace Wellness
"The program offers a comprehensive health risk assessment (HRA) to identify health risk factors based on the employees' lifestyle and behavioral choices, personal and family medical history, and clinical measures including blood pressure, cholesterol, height and weight." (GateHouse Media, Inc.)

Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation Implements Workplace Wellness Grant Program for Employers
"Effective January 10, 2012, the [bureau] has implemented a new program providing grants up to $15,000 over 4 years to state-fund employers to create workplace wellness programs for the prevention of occupational injuries and illnesses and to address health risk factors to reduce the number and severity of workplace injuries and illnesses." (Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP)

Employer Health Fair Saves Employee's Life
"By participating in a health fair through his employer, [an employee] learned he had prostate cancer. He now works to encourage others to participate in these types of screenings." (The Herald-Citizen)

[Opinion] Fitness Memberships and Favorable Selection in Medicare Advantage Plans
"This study further confirms what we have known all along - that private insurers selectively market to the healthy, further cushioning their profits by being paid at rates for those with only average health." (Physicians for a National Health Program)

Ohio Law Clarifies County Wellness Programs
"Legislation signed . . . in late December clears up what some county prosecutors said was cloudy language regarding whether counties can create programs to combat obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease." (The Columbus Dispatch)

Companies Weigh Value, Costs of Helping Employees Get Healthier
"Local experts say the common denominator concerning a commitment to wellness programs is leadership -- whether those in charge realize on a personal level how better fitness can improve not only health, but morale, productivity and the bottom line, namely reducing absenteeism rates and health care costs." (Evening Post Publishing Co.)

Healthcare & Wellness Market Survey (PDF)
"In recent years, employers have increasingly introduced wellness programs to address rising health insurance costs. Numerous studies have shown a direct link between avoidable, preventable risks such as obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease and smoking and higher health care costs and lost days. The concept of wellness, however, is very broad and relatively new to employers." (William Gallagher Associates)

A Pennsylvania Health System Says It Won't Hire Smokers
"The shift toward policies that ban smokers, not just smoking, has been growing in Pennsylvania and the 20 other states that allow it. Beginning in the 1980s with big companies such as Turner Broadcasting and Alaska Airlines, no-nicotine hiring practices have been embraced by police and fire departments, medical centers, even an Ohio casino." (Philadelphia Media Network Inc.)

New York City's New Ad Campaign Attacks Big Food Portions
"About 57% of adult New Yorkers and two out of every five elementary school children remain overweight, while nearly 10% of New Yorkers have been diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes, according to the agency." (Crain Communications, Inc.)

'Value' in Health Insurance Acquires New Meaning
"National reform will further encourage value-based insurance design in 2014, when it allows employers to reimburse employees up to 30% of health insurance costs if workers meet health and wellness goals. The current reimbursement rate is 20%. . . . Value-based insurance adjusts out-of-pocket costs based on an assessment of the clinical benefit value -- not simply the cost -- to a specific patient population . . . ." (California Healthline)

Few With Diabetes Risk See Need for Lifestyle Counseling
"Many patients who are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes do not perceive the need for lifestyle counseling, and even among those who see the need for counseling, less than half actually attend lifestyle interventions . . . . 'Altogether, preventing diabetes would seem to require action from policy makers in all sectors and at all levels, not just from the health care system,' the authors [of the study] write." (Physician's Briefing)

PSA Screening Doesn't Prevent Cancer Deaths, Study Says
"[R]esearchers found that more men in the screening group had been diagnosed with prostate cancer after 13 years -- but there was no difference in how many had died from it. The results [are] consistent with recent draft guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommending that average-risk men not undergo regular PSA screening . . . ." (Reuters Health)

'Value' in Health Insurance Acquires New Meaning
"The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is set to test whether value-based insurance design can be a viable tool for aligning out-of-pocket costs and the value of medical services. National reform will further encourage value-based insurance design in 2014, when it allows employers to reimburse employees up to 30% of health insurance costs if workers meet health and wellness goals. The current reimbursement rate is 20%." (California HealthCare Foundation)

Team Lotteries Motivate Employees to Participate in Wellness Programs
"Now a new study in the American Journal of Health Promotion suggests that group lotteries might increase employee participation in one component of wellness programs -- filling out health risk assessment questionnaires." (Center for Advancing Health)

Workplaces Ban Not Only Smoking, but Smokers Themselves
"As bans on smoking sweep the USA, an increasing number of employers -- primarily hospitals -- are also imposing bans on smokers. They won't hire applicants whose urine tests positive for nicotine use, whether cigarettes, smokeless tobacco or even patches." (USA TODAY)

Texas Food Retailer to Launch Healthy-Eating Initiative Sourced from Employee Wellness Program
"To make ingredients for healthy recipes less expensive, H-E-B has created a 'Healthy Savings' meal program, which will offer 'bundles' of fresh ingredients plus recipes for a healthy meal that will feed four people for less than $10." (The Brownsville Herald)

A Corporate Culture of Health and Wellness (or Else)
"This is the new wave of corporate activism: Looking out for employees' health, in ways that are sometimes gently encouraging, sometimes more coercive. In 2010, at Boston-based insurance broker William Gallagher Associates, employees were asked to fill out a voluntary survey about their health, and got a $50 gift card in return. In 2011, the company offered a set of lab screening tests, free, along with a considerable stick: If employees declined to do the bloodwork, the company would pay a smaller percentage of their health care premiums." (The Boston Globe)

Double the Impact of Your Wellness Program (without Adding Cost)
"If you have limited dollars to spend, activity-based programs are a wise choice to earn first priority over other programs that may get more buzz or come to mind first. These programs work not only as an effective maintenance program for healthy employees, and a risk reduction program for participants with high blood pressure, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity, but also strongly impact the reduction of mental health conditions." (BenefitsPro)

Oregon State Workers Wellness Program Approved Despite Concerns
"The Health Engagement Model requires workers to undergo a health assessment, take online wellness lessons and take steps to reduce their risk of chronic disease. Those who refuse to participate must pay an additional monthly surcharge." (www.statesmanjournal.com)

Inspiring Employee Healthy Lifestyles with Employer Incentives
"Across the country, businesses are encouraging employee wellness by holding contests, health screenings, and providing other incentives to help employees get healthy -- and to reduce company health care costs." (phillyBurbs.com)

Crafts Company Achieves Flat Health Care Costs for Five Years Through Consistent Commitment to Wellness
"Michael D. Klansek knew something was up with his company when he read Towers Watson statistics earlier this year that showed total health care costs per employee per year are at $11,176. His PEPY costs in 2011? $7,707. And they've been that way since 2006." (Employee Benefit News)

Smokers, Forced to Pay More for Health Insurance, Can Get Help with Quitting
"While public funding falters, a growing number of companies offer smoking-cessation programs to their workers. Last year, two-thirds of companies with 200 or more workers offered such programs, while 31 percent of smaller companies did so . . . ." (The Washington Post; free registration required)

More Employers Rewarding Healthy Workers with Cash
"The payoffs range from $50 to more than $1,400 a year, and the money tends to catch the attention of employees who may have been numb to previous get-healthy messages." (FOX News Network, LLC)

IBM Gets Patent on Healthy Eating Incentive Program
"For it to work, a person must use a micro-payment network to buy food, which allows their purchases to be monitored and compared against their health records. If they've made the right choices, the system then communicates with their employer's payroll server to issue a reward." (AOL Inc.)

Employer-Sponsored Laboratory Testing Identified Previously Undiagnosed Medical Conditions
"'Our findings show that, for a large proportion of working-age adults, health care access alone does not guarantee detection of risk factors for common chronic health conditions,' the researchers wrote. The availability of health risk assessment with laboratory tests serves an important role in addressing this shortcoming. By identifying such opportunities early, employer-sponsored laboratory testing may slow or prevent the progression of common medical conditions.'" (EndocrineToday.com via SLACK, Inc.)

Firms Adjust to Aging Employees with Morning Stretches at Duke Energy, Ice Packs at Harley-Davidson
"Companies also tend to value older workers because they are less likely to job hop. Besides, reducing strains on workers can cut medical-insurance and workers-compensation costs arising from injuries." (The Wall Street Journal)

Wisconsin Makes Strides in Healthier Living
"Wellness initiatives don't only exist in the schools -- some employers are focusing on a healthier workforce. Appleton-based ThedaCare and Affinity Health System in Menasha, which combined employ about 10,000 people across Northeastern Wisconsin, through the years have implemented numerous programs to improve the health of its work force and assisted other regional businesses develop wellness programs for its employees." (www.greenbaypressgazette.com)

Fitness Program Saves a North Carolina County Money
"County Human Resource Director Amber Parker said EbenConcepts, the county's benefits broker, conducted a return-on-investment analysis of actual claims data of 83 county employees who participated in the county's voluntary health screening all three years and determined that the net savings for the county, minus the cost of the screenings, is $74,576." (StarNewsOnline.com)

Insurers Offer Incentives for Health and Penalize Workers Who Can't Meet Goals, Raising Questions of Fairness
"UnitedHealth is selling large employers on plans that can give workers $600 annual premium discounts if they take screenings and later meet targets for weight, blood pressure and other measures. The rapidly expanding premium cuts and rewards please employers seeking caps on health costs, and those in the expanding 'wellness' industry." (The Denver Post)

Health Care Delivery: A Renewed Frontier for Health Care Value (PDF)
"Whether they're included in employer strategies or not, health care providers continue to be the primary influencer on health behaviors and health consumption. But if employers 'dial up' their delivery strategies, they can leverage providers'influence, accelerate employer health and productivity objectives, and bend the cost curve. This article identifies four postreform areas of immediate opportunity for coordinated delivery: on-site services, mobile delivery, community initiatives and medical tourism. Although employers will find no one-size-fits-all approach, any strategy based only on wellness and consumerism is missing a third leg that can help to accelerate the success of the other two." (International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists)

EEOC Staff Members Offer Informal Views on GINA but Decline to Elaborate on Wellness Incentives
"Hardship distribution requests involving genetic information may not arise all that often, but employers will be interested in staff members' view that the inadvertent acquisition exception is available in these circumstances, even without the safe harbor disclaimer." (Thomson Reuters/EBIA)

Progress-Based Incentives Reward Employees for Making Meaningful Progress Toward Health Goals
"Incentive strategies generally fall into three categories: participation-based incentives, outcomes-based incentives and a newly suggested approach, progress-based incentives." (Society for Human Resource Management)

Blues Plans Pilot New Wellness Tool with Personalized Web Platform
"Although many insurers offer smoking-cessation programs or discount health club memberships, three Blues plans have teamed up with a company to use its Web-based platform, mobile apps, wireless-enabled biometric measurement devices and digital coaching to devise a more personalized wellness program for members." (AISHealth)

2011/2012 Staying@Work Survey Report: Finding a Pathway to Employee Health and Workplace Productivity
"[The findings] paint a complex picture: Although companies with highly effective health and productivity . . . programs have clearly gained successes, they are tempered by shortfalls in key areas for all companies, including those with best practices." (Towers Watson)

Obese Adults Pay 23 Percent Higher Premiums
"[P]olicyholders in the obese BMI category pay an average monthly premium 22.6 percent higher than those in the normal BMI category ($164 compared to $201). For men, it's an even heftier toll: The average monthly premium paid by men in the obese category ($187) is 30.8 percent higher than the average premium paid by men in the normal category ($143)." (BenefitsPro)

Health Trends to Watch For in 2012
"Employers are going to increase their efforts of maintaining a healthy workforce to help reduce health insurance costs in 2012. ACE reports more employers will turn to local gyms and health clubs to run their wellness programs. For employees, this could mean discounts and reduced membership fees at local fitness facilities." (FOX News Network, LLC)

Looking at the 'Dark Side' of Outcomes-Based Wellness Programs
"The new rage in wellness is building outcomes-based programs which, depending on how you look at it, either provide an incentive to those that take care of their health or penalizes those who are unhealthy." (BenefitsPro)

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