You may have read articles detailing the complex algorithms used to determine the benefits of an employee wellness program, but unless you have an advanced math degree from MIT, you probably will not replicate those efforts to equate the financial benefit for your own company.Experts say for every $1 you spend on wellness, you will save $3 to $4 in healthcare costs. That sounds great, but from a functional ...

Certainly you’ve heard of paint-by-number, and if you’ve ever assembled a piece of furniture or a child’s toy, you know that requires following a numbered schematic. But what do numbers have to do with improving health? Quite a lot, actually. It’s called “predictive analysis,” and health insurers and clinicians use special software to identify certain populations of people by various qualifications to deter ...

(Fourth and final in a series. Offering employee incentives is one of the most important components in creating a successful employee wellness program in your company. Sentara Healthcare’s wellness plan, while partnering with Optima Health, is an incentive-based plan that both improves employee health and saves money for the company.) While many companies have had wellness pro­grams in place for years, ofte ...

(Third in a series. A personal health improvement plan that includes recommended health coaching classes to address specific health needs is yet another secret to a successful employee wellness program. Last week’s post discussed the importance of building a great communications strategy. Today’s post explores what health coaching can do for your company.) By Guest Blogger: Terrina Thomas, Director of Healt ...

(Second in a series: Last week’s post talked about the importance of using personal health assessments to begin a successful program.) As with most endeavors in business and in life, communication is key if employers are to deploy an effective wellness program. The real question is, what does effective communication look like in a wellness program? There are many ways to structure an effective communication ...

(First in a series) Every employer who begins a workplace wellness program wants to help employees with their health and reduce healthcare costs. Most plans include some combination of exercise, nutrition, stress management and smoking cessation. So what makes a wellness plan successful? There are a number of things that set apart a winning program. A few of those include incorporating personal health profi ...

Deciding what type of health insurance you need can be as daunting as memorizing the New York City phone book in under five minutes. The type of insurance, the deductibles, the benefits, the co-insurance, the premiums, the network—terms that are foreign to most are suddenly overwhelming your computer screen or mailbox when choosing a health plan for you and your family. Before delving into the complicated l ...

What does it take to engage employees—cash, gift cards, contributions to their health savings accounts, or perhaps premium reductions? According to a survey by the National Business Group on Health and Fidelity Investments released in March, just under 73 percent of employers used incentives in 2011 as part of their health improvement programs. The average incentive value was $460, up from $430 in 2010 and ...

With the two-year anniversary of health reform legislation just around the corner, Aon Hewitt, the global human resource solutions business of Aon Corporation, recently surveyed 562 employers nationwide and found that 94 percent are committed to offering and financially supporting health benefit coverage for their employees in some form going forward. 72 percent are very or somewhat interested in exploring ...

Just the word Zumba makes you smile. It’s a funny word actually. Have you been bit by the Zumba bug yet? The Zumba fitness program is all about having a party while you work out. Its website (zumba.com) boasts that it’s a “Latin-inspired dance-fitness program that blends red-hot international music, created by Grammy Award-winning producers, and contagious steps to form a "fitness-party" that is downright a ...