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It’s a disturbing statistic you’ve likely heard: 75 million
adults of working age lack health insurance. The current
presidential race hotly debates how to best provide universal access
to medical services—an essential step toward achieving optimal
health for all Americans. But this step alone will not address all
important health needs. Health care reform must also include a strategy to reduce
unnecessary medical care expenditures—and the best way to achieve
this is through prevention. Research estimates that 50 to 70 percent of total health
care costs are behavior driven. Poor nutrition and physical
inactivity contribute to obesity, which in turn affects the recent
rise in chronic diseases such as diabetes. The American Diabetes
Association, for example, reports the prevalence of diabetes
increased 13.5 percent from 2005-2007. To curb the growth of this and other costly diseases, many
Americans must learn new skills to choose and sustain healthy
lifestyle choices. This includes raising awareness of health risks through
health risk assessments, biometric screenings and educational
seminars. It requires readily available tools and support to
effectively motivate and engage individuals in long-term healthy
change. And individuals must be given strong personal financial
incentives for adopting healthy behaviors. At HealthFitness, our solutions are designed to educate and
engage individuals—your employees—for the long term so they can
improve their health and reduce health care costs not only for your
company, but also for themselves. We offer health improvement solutions that require
employees to ‘own the change’ as opposed to our staff simply telling
employees what to do. We empower individuals with freedom of choice
for how they receive a lifestyle intervention: face-to-face,
telephonic, Web-based or a combination of these methods. And we also
offer tailored incentives to reward employees and sustain their
momentum towards adopting healthy lifestyle choices. The next few years are certain to be turbulent ones in the
health industry as health care reform takes shape. But one thing
that will remain unchanged is the importance of prevention to your
employees to reduce health care costs and absenteeism. Through our continued collaboration, we look forward to
playing an important role in helping your total population prevent
health risks—and in improving the productivity of your employees. Yours in good health,
Gregg O. Lehman Inside HealthFitness Many employers struggle with even estimating effective incentive levels for their unique employee population and culture. But not anymore. HealthFitness introduces a new forecasting tool that quickly estimates expected enrollment into a health risk assessment and coaching programs based on the incentive amount, program elements, and demographics of the company. While no calculator can exactly account for every penny, our tool calculates approximate savings and ROI (by year two) based on the expected impact of the program. Additionally, we can further refine expected results based on information such as spousal eligibility and annual claims costs. We can also use the tool to estimate the impact of using benefit cost sharing in contrast to an incentive. Interested in learning more about this free value-added
service? Please contact your program manager. Or visit our booth for a
demonstration of our incentive calculator at the DMAA: The Care
Continuum Alliance conference, Sept. 6-9, in Hollywood, Fla. HealthFitness’ New Educational Seminars Spark Participant Interest in Health Mind Your Health gives employees a fun, social
environment to learn actionable health tips that reduce their health
risks. All content used during the presentation and in participant
handouts is scientifically validated and uses up-to-date health
industry guidelines. Plus, the seminars use language that the
layperson understands. Available seminars include: • Diabetes–Awareness and Prevention: Symptoms of
diabetes, risk factors for pre-diabetes and diabetes, and best
strategies for preventing diabetes • Back health–Preventing Pain and Strain: Why back
health matters, back pain triggers and preventive back care tips • Manage Stress–Before it Manages You: How to
identify stress-related symptoms; how to categorize stressors and
when to take action or use coping skills; and quick relaxation
techniques • Heart Healthy Living–The Beat Goes On: What
causes heart disease, controllable and uncontrollable risks for
coronary artery disease, and lifestyle choices for a healthy heart • Blood Pressure–A Vital Force for Life: What your
blood pressure should be, risk factors for high blood pressure, and
how to take control of your risk • Healthy Weight–Set Yourself Up for Success: How
to develop a lifetime eating plan, improve eating behaviors and how
to lose weight safely • Lifestyle and Cancer–Reduce Your Risks: Key
lifestyle factors that affect cancer risk and screening guidelines
to help detect cancer early • Women’s Health–Take Care of You: Basics of a
healthy lifestyle; tips for heart, breast and bone health; and how
to manage menopause symptoms • Healthy Eating–Step Up to the Plate: Tools to
personalize your eating plan, healthy eating tips, and how to eat
healthy without breaking your budget • Fitting in Fitness–Exercise Options for Busy People:
Guidelines for a balanced fitness program, tips to fit in fitness,
and five keys to success for healthy behaviors To learn more about offering Mind Your Health seminars at your site, contact your program manager. Inside Our Science Advisory Board: Meet Penny M. Kris-Etherton, Ph.D., R.D. One of our board members is Penny M. Kris-Etherton, a
distinguished professor of nutrition in the Department of
Nutritional Sciences at Pennsylvania State University. Her research
has emphasized exploring how nutrients and other bioactive elements
affect risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Throughout her career she has played a role in the
widespread communication of nutrition messages to health
professionals, government representatives, policy makers, consumers
and the media. She is also actively involved in educating and
training future dietitians and nutrition scientists. Kris-Etherton has published more than 150 scientific
papers, 10 book chapters and co-authored four books. Her research
program has been funded by National Institutes of Health, U.S.
Department of Agriculture and the private sector. Additionally, she has served on many U.S. national committees and review panels including the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans Advisory Committee, the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Macronutrients, the American Heart Association Nutrition Committee, NIH's Nutrition Study Section, the National Cholesterol Education Program Second Adult Treatment Panel, the ASCN/AIN Task Force on Trans Fatty Acids, and WomenHeart. To date, Kris-Etherton has reviewed our Senior Healthy Eating Guide
materials for the Senior Risk Reduction Demonstration project with
Pfizer Health Solutions. She also provided feedback on the
nutritional questions that are included in our INSIGHTŪ
International Health Risk Assessment. Visit
http://www.hfit.com/sboard.asp to learn more about members of
our Science Advisory Board Best-in-Class
Practices and Awards For Brock's Kingsport, Tenn., location, HealthFitness
provides work conditioning—an exercise, conditioning and work
simulation program to prepare the worker for the demands of the job. Brock's goal with using the program is to reduce injuries
and increase productivity among employees performing line
manufacturing tasks. Due to the labor-intensive nature of the work,
Brock's initial concerns for employee health were related to back
and shoulder issues. Today, more than 300 Brock employees participate in
HealthFitness' work conditioning program. T1 to T2 results, covering
a 72-month time frame, showed that participants quantifiably
increased strength, flexibility and endurance. Plus, the entire
Fibers Support Group saw its OSHA recordable rate of injuries drop
from 2.84 in 2006 to 1.5 in 2007. Occupational health is an important contributor to a
culture of health—a mindset that embraces the preservation of health
and the prevention of illness. Work conditioning, injury prevention
and other occupational health programs also help to measurably
increase the health and productivity of employees. To learn more about HealthFitness' occupational health
services, please contact your program manager. Spotlighting Integrated Health Benefit Design at Florida Power & Light The issue brief, “Integrated Health Benefit Design Powers
Florida Utility Company’s Workforce,” draws on the strength of
experienced voices. The report features insight from Andrew Scibelli,
manager of Employee Health & Well-being for FPL GROUP, and presents
a case example of that company’s integrated program. FPL-WELL, the company's health and well-being program, manages health care benefits for its more than 15,000 employees that integrate five major program elements: fitness centers, primary and urgent care health centers, health promotion, nutrition and weight management services and employee assistance programs. The program has reduced the rate of health care cost increases for the self-insured company over the years and produced a positive return on investment of 3:1. The free issue brief, “Integrated Health Benefit Design Powers Florida Utility Company’s Workforce,” is available online at http://www.hfit.com/briefs.cfm. Industry Insights During a seven-year period, the sale of moist snuff,
roll-your-own loose tobacco and small cigars increased by more than
a billion cigarette pack equivalents as estimated from their tobacco
and nicotine content. Study researchers believe this shift was
partly because the primary focus of marketing and media campaigns
has been cigarettes. As a result, the public might have a false
sense of security with other forms of tobacco, according to experts
at the Harvard School of Public Health. Furthermore, since smoking
is now prohibited in many public buildings and places of employment,
this could be encouraging the switch to other non-cigarette tobacco
products. The rising cost of cigarettes has also influenced the use
of non-cigarette tobacco products. The weekly cost for a typical
user of premium moist snuff is 55 percent less than for a typical
cigarette smoker. This cost differential between non-cigarette
products and cigarettes is keeping tobacco addiction affordable. According to researchers, all forms of tobacco, including
pipes, cigars and snuff can increase cancer risk and may contribute
to heart disease and high blood pressure. As a result, the study
encourages health educators to consider targeting all tobacco
products in public health campaigns and intervention programs. Source: Journal of the American Medical Association
Connolly G, Alpert H
"Trends in the use of cigarettes and other tobacco
products, 2000-2007" JAMA 2008; 299:
2629-2630 Keeping a Food Diary Increases Weight Loss Among the 1,685 participants in the study, 21 percent were
overweight and 79 percent were obese, as measured by body mass
index. In addition to keeping a food diary, study participants were
asked to exercise at least 180 minutes per week, follow the DASH
(Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) eating plan, and attend
weekly behavior intervention sessions. After six months, the average
weight loss was 13 pounds. Two-thirds of the participants lost at
least nine pounds—an amount experts agree is enough to reduce health
risks, such as hypertension and diabetes. Researchers attributed the simple act of keeping a food
diary to helping study participants with the following:
Source: Hollis J, et al "Weight loss during the intensive
intervention phase of the Weight-Loss Maintenance Trial" Am J
Prev Med 2008; DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2008.04.013. Lehman Featured in Panel Discussion on Industry Best Practices In the article, Lehman addresses trends with reporting real
ROI with corporate wellness programs, the effect of wellness
programs on worker satisfaction and productivity, and more. Visit www.hrmreport.com
to read the full story. Here you can also access an article authored
by Lehman on HealthFitness’ unique approach to engaging employees in
health called
“21st Century Vision for Health Benefit Design.” Where We’ll Be Next DMAA: The Care Continuum Alliance Health Enhancement Research Organization |
