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 ...

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(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 ...

(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 ...

Open enrollment. It is your once-a-year chance to make choices and changes in your benefits plan. Are you ready? Decisions made during this season are significant, as they not only affect the pocketbook, they also determine healthcare choices for an entire year. According to a MetLife study, employees typically spend only about 30 minutes considering their options during open enrollment before selecting a h ...

This op-ed article by Michael Dudley on health reform appeared in the March 23rd issue of "Inside Business" in Norfolk. It also appeared in the Harrisonsburg "Daily News Record" and Roanoke's "The Roanoke Times." While businesses and individuals have been anticipating the changes to come with health care reform, it's still too soon to count on anything. Health insurance companies have had the "pedal to the ...

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 ...