a wellness program already available for you...

Most health insurance companies already have tools and resources built into your current health plan. Depending on the company and plan you can get discounts and even cash for participating.

Check with your provider or broker. For example, if you are with Kaiser they have a plan for members (just get a username/password) with the following:

What you'll get

Healthy lifestyle programs give you ongoing support based on your unique needs. Some of the features available to you:

• a personalized plan to reach your goals
• tools to track and monitor your progress
• exercise and stretching videos
• relaxation and guided imagery podcasts
• health news
• and more

Do they work?

Yes. But don't take our word for it. Participants report these encouraging results:

• 55% of Balance users lost weight after 6 months.
• 58% of Relax users had a decrease in symptoms of excess stress.
• 91% of Nourish users improved their eating habits.
• 52% of Breathe users were still off tobacco after 6 months.
• 78% of Care for Pain users were better able to manage pain within 30 days.

These programs have worked for thousands. Let them work for you. Good luck! Give us a call is you have any questions or would like to talk about what you are doing to stay healthy. For myself, I ran 4.5 miles today.

Summer Referral Program!

Congress plans incentives for healthy habits

I went running again last night. Does that count?

Providing healthy incentives for employees making healthy decisions makes a difference.

New York Times -

May 11: Washington - In its effort to overhaul health care, Congress is planning to give employers sweeping new authority to reward employees for healthy behavior, including better diet, more exercise, weight loss and smoking cessation. A web of federal rules limits what employers and insurers can do now.

Congress is seriously considering proposals to provide tax credits or other subsidies to employers who offer wellness programs that meet federal criteria. In addition, lawmakers said they would make it easier for employers to use financial rewards or penalties to promote healthy behavior among employees.

Two Democratic senators working on comprehensive health legislation, Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the Finance Committee, and Tom Harkin of Iowa, have taken the lead in devising such incentives. “Prevention and wellness should be a centerpiece of health care reform,” said Mr. Harkin, who regularly climbs the stairs to his seventh-floor office on Capitol Hill.

The White House agrees. One of President Obama’s eight principles for health legislation is that it must “invest in prevention and wellness,” a goal espoused in almost identical words by Republican senators like John Cornyn of Texas and Orrin G. Hatch of Utah.

Health and Wellness

If you are a customer (business or individual) you should be aware of the great tools offered by Blue Shield at no cost to you:

Your employees can turn to Blue Shield's many prevention and wellness programs for additional help in managing their physical, psychological, and lifestyle well-being.

Wellness Discount Programs: As Blue Shield members, your employees receive discounts and access to popular, health-related programs and plans, including Weight Watchers, 24 Hour Fitness, and drugstore.com.

NurseHelp 24/7 (PDF, 62KB): Members can contact an experienced registered nurse for immediate and reliable answers to their health questions 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

LifeReferrals 24/7 (PDF, 108KB): This program offers our members referrals to master's-level counselors and a team of experienced professionals ready to assist them with personal, family, financial, legal, and work-related issues.

Lifepath ResourcesSM offer a variety of professional services that support a healthy lifestyle and informed healthcare decisions. Download the employer brochure (PDF, 87KB) or the employee brochure (PDF, 84KB) to learn more.

Lifepath Decision Guide: Members can research and compare hospitals, treatment options and medications.

Blueshieldca.com: Members, employers, producers and providers can access health and wellness and benefit information at any time. Examples of special services are:

RelayHealth: Members who choose physicians that participate in this program can conduct secure online visits with their doctor and request appointments and referrals.1

Direct-to-Physician: Delivers clinical reminders and patient-specific alerts to physicians.

Healthy Lifestyle Rewards: This interactive, online program is designed to help members and their families adopt and maintain healthy lifestyle behaviors. Learn how to promote Healthy Lifestyle Rewards to your employees.

Prenatal education: New parents can find healthy lifestyle guidance before, during and after pregnancy.

Preventive health guidelines: Members can learn about health screenings, immunizations and other health checkups.

You can find the info here.

wellness, tax credits and other ways to improve your employees health

I keep talking about this as it is central to our message; wellness, prevention and behavioral change is key to keeping your health costs down. However, with small group employers (under 50 employees) there has been no way to see measurable results when implementing such a plan.

We believe those changes are coming. In some states (see below) the conversation is already on the table. I had a discussion last week with Kaiser to see what they are up to. You can see some of it in a post from a few days ago on presenteeism. I admire what they have been doing as it is on the cutting edge of wellness, prevention and developing tools to allow employees access to better care. Aetna and others are doing similar things.

I found this article on Iowa State and some of their discussions for small businesses - highlights:

• Seventy five percent of costs related to health care in the United States can be attributable to chronic disease (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2003). 
• Behavioral choice is one factor that contributes to the prevalence of these health conditions 
• Investment in wellness programs return $4.91 for every dollar spent
• Small businesses lack the resources to implement wellness initiatives
• Iowa is looking into tax credits for such initiatives
• Qualified wellness initiatives must include assessment, evaluation and education 

 I am particularly excited because we have been talking with our clients and prospects about this and believe that California carriers are moving in this direction. I had several conversations with them over the past two weeks to confirm. Give us a call as we are already doing it. Why not get ahead of the curve?

GE to spend $6 billion on healthcare

General Electric plans to spend $6 billion over the next six years in an effort to improve health-care quality and drive down costs to consumers, the company announced Thursday.

read the rest here but the parts that stood out to me are areas we are focusing on now with small/medium employers:

"Consumers and providers are calling for more quality and transparency and access," Immelt said. "Health care needs new solutions. We must innovate with smarter processes and technologies that help doctors and hospitals deliver better health care to more people at a lower cost."

The company will continue to focus on wellness and safety programs at its work sites and will work on partnerships with health-care providers to reduce costs, he said. GE will turn its 175 health centers into wellness clinics and increase employee incentives for healthy activities, the company said.

GE's goals for the program are to reduce the cost of procedures using GE technologies and services by 15%, to increase access to health care services by 15% and to improve the quality and efficiency of health care by 15 percent.