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The Benefits and Wellness Bulletin (BWB) is dedicated to helping you explore new ideas around wellness and benefit offerings. If you are not an ASHHRA member, please check out the benefits here and consider joining ASHHRA here. 
FROM ASHHRA
Dear Health Care Executives: As the temperature starts to drop and it sounds nicer to cozy up on the couch with the remote, we need to remember to STAY ACTIVE and keep the wellness momentum alive in ourselves and our organizations. Hopefully this edition of the Benefits and Wellness Bulletin (BWB) will give you and your employees some great ideas around staying active and inspiring others. BENEFITS
By Fran Durekas
The health care industry is known for being a highly competitive, highly educated and innovative field that employs large numbers of women professionals. In fact, some have called health care a woman’s economy due to the high numbers of female employees and consumers in the sector. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 78.7 percent of the positions in health care and social assistance are held by women. By Bob Herman
When hospitals and health systems need to re-evaluate their expenses, benefits programs are usually among the first areas to succumb to the chopping block, but providers should look closely at all benefits programs before making any cuts, according to a whitepaper from SullivanCotter and Associates. SOURCE: BECKER’S HOSPITAL REVIEW By Kevin Sweeney
An alarming statistic regarding debt in this country has jumped off the pages of countless newspaper business sections over the past year. Student loan debt now exceeds credit card debt in the U.S. At first glance, it might not seem like a topic that employers should focus on or one they can even do much about with respect to their benefit offerings. But failure to act, or at least recognize that the issue exists in an organization, can have detrimental effects across a workforce struggling with what can ultimately be a crippling financial burden. SOURCE: EMPLOYEE BENEFITS NEWS By John Dorschner
In pushing for healthier employees, Florida Power & Light’s parent company is charging well ahead of the pack, offering up to $1,640 a year to some employees for good behavior while punishing others by threatening to take away up to $30 out of each biweekly paycheck. As South Florida employers prepare to stage open enrollments for 2013 health insurance, the offering of carrots for healthy actions keeps ramping up, but Next Era Energy, owner of Florida Power & Light, is leading the way among the region’s large employers with threatening with a stick as well. SOURCE: THE MIAMI HERALD By Tristan Lejeune
In a pair of recent interviews, executives from two of the 10 companies top-ranked for employee financial wellness by the Principal Financial Group both stressed that benefits programs should be tethered as closely as possible to retention and customer satisfaction. Good health care and retirement options are attractive to new hires, they say, but the real return on investment comes with nurturing someone through the company. SOURCE: EMPLOYEE BENEFITS NEWS Key findings in the just-released ADP Research Institute's Total Absence Management Survey of over 250 HR professionals from large and midsize organizations reveal that wellness programs are reducing absenteeism.
SOURCE: HR.BLR.COM By Jack VanDerhei
Setting a higher starting point for 401(k) contributions would make a significant difference in improving workers’ likelihood of a financially viable retirement, according to new research. SOURCE: EMPLOYEE BENEFIT RESEARCH INSTITUTE In addition to selecting the president this fall, many U.S. workers will have the opportunity to "elect" employee benefits for 2013. As important as these decisions are, just 56 percent of those eligible to participate in the annual benefits enrollment period feel very confident that they will make the right ones for themselves and their families. Many workers keep the same choices each year or fail to actively enroll, potentially leaving money on the table, according to MetLife's "Benefits Election Poll."
SOURCE: WORLD AT WORK By Kathleen Koster
From corporate bonuses to wellness premium reductions, employers drive productive and healthy behavior with the promise of future rewards. But what if employees received their rewards up front, with the threat that the cash would be taken away if they didn't perform to standards? SOURCE: EMPLOYEE BENEFITS NEWS By Paul Fronstin
The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) appears to have had little impact on Americans’ confidence about their health care, according to a new report by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). SOURCE: EMPLOYEE BENEFIT RESEARCH INSTITUTE By Paul Fronstin
The uninsured rate for working-age Americans ticked down in 2011, but only because public program coverage grew faster than employment-based health insurance coverage declined, according to a new report by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). SOURCE: EMPLOYEE BENEFIT RESEARCH INSTITUTE By Marli D. Riggs
Have we got a deal for you. Employee discount programs, generally part of a larger work-life benefit package, are proving to be a valuable benefit. Small-, mid-, and large-sized companies that offer these discount programs believe they help achieve goals of worker retention, job satisfaction, and company loyalty. The savings augment income for workers, who in turn represent a valuable customer source for vendors. SOURCE: EMPLOYEE BENEFITS NEWS By Chris Taylor
If you're an employee who's looking to save money or make more of it, here's a little advice: Step away from the cigarettes and chocolate éclairs. They might cost you — and not just in your lungs or on your hips. That's because more companies than ever are attaching financial rewards and penalties to their employees' health. Do a wellness screening, get $50. Stop smoking, enjoy lower insurance premiums. Hit a weight or cholesterol target, get a contribution to your health savings account. SOURCE: REUTERS WELLNESS
Flu shot season has arrived! Vaccination of health care workers reduces influenza infection and absenteeism, prevents mortality in their patients, and results in financial savings to sponsoring health institutions. Influenza vaccination coverage among health care workers in the United States, however, remains low.
By Melissa Healy
Kaiser Permanente will join 17 other hospital systems across the country to give hospital food — the stuff that arrives on trays, is sold in vending machines and offered in cafeterias — a nutritional make-over aimed at fighting obesity and putting their stomachs, well, where their mouths are. SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES By Shefali S. Kulkarni
Are doctors following the same health and wellness advice they give to their patients? Based on new Gallup data, physicians appear to be in better health than other members of the workforce — even nurses — which could set a good example for patients. SOURCE: KAISER HEALTH NEWS Another sign of the high pressure being placed on today's workforce is that just one in five employees take an actual lunch break, according to a survey from Right Management. Thirty-nine percent of employees say they eat lunch at their desk. But 28 percent report seldom taking any break whatsoever. All in all, 81 percent are not taking what used to be considered a real lunch break.
SOURCE: WORLD AT WORK By Steve Holt
At Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital outside Detroit, the sick and their families, as well as hospital employees, dine on nutritious meals made from fresh produce like tomatoes, kale, eggplant, and strawberries. Everything is local... very local. The hospital grows most of its own food in a gleaming new, 1,500-square-foot hydroponic greenhouse. That’s not all. On Saturday, the hospital unveiled an educational center where everyone from patients to the public can come to learn about making healthy food choices. Many of the exhibits will be geared toward kids in a state where 12 percent of children under five and 14 percent of nine-to-12-year-olds are considered obese. SOURCE: TAKE PART Health care spending is 9 percent higher for hospital employees than it is for the general employee population, according to study results released today by Truven Health Analytics, formerly the Healthcare business of Thomson Reuters.
SOURCE: MARKETWATCH.COM By Debra Beaulieu
Although physicians' busy lifestyles make it difficult to follow some of the health advice they preach, a new Gallup report reveals that doctors are, by and large, healthier than the rest of the U.S. workforce, including nurses. SOURCE: FIERCE PRACTICE MANAGEMENT By Christine S. Moyer
Most of the children pediatric endocrinologist Anita N. Swamy, MD, cares for in Chicago are obese or overweight. Many don’t know what "healthy eating" means. Some have never even had fruits or vegetables. "If you tell someone, ‘I want you to eat better,’ they have no idea what you’re talking about," said Dr. Swamy, medical director of Chicago Children’s Diabetes Center at La Rabida Children’s Hospital. SOURCE: AMERICAN MEDICAL NEWS By Ben Fischer
The vast majority of companies make some gesture toward worker wellness these days, but there's a big difference between a gesture and a program that really makes workers healthier and lowers insurance claims. SOURCE: WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL By L.A. Chung
Resident of Los Altos, Mountain View and Sunnyvale, and employees and patients of El Camino Hospital now have another option to stay healthy with fresh fruits and vegetables. Every Friday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. this fall, the hospital will host — along with Bay Area Farmers’ Markets Association (BAFMA) — a weekly farmers’ market, which will feature locally grown organic produce, fresh eggs, cheese, breads , kettle corn, fish, and nuts. SOURCE: MOUNTAIN VIEW PATCH Healthy workers can improve the health of a business, and more South Carolina employers need to cash in on it. Nine large employers from the Lowcountry are trying to do that. More should follow. They have joined the Working Well program that has been in place for more than a year in hospitals around South Carolina and North Carolina.
SOURCE: ISLANDPACKET.COM By Carie Canterbury
Workers in the health care, mental health, and education fields often are so busy caring for others that they may neglect their own wellbeing. But three local entities teamed up Wednesday to let their employees know that they value employee wellness. St. Thomas More Hospital, the Cañon City School District, and West Central Mental Health Center partnered to offer their employees an evening of wellness information, free health screenings, a healthy-cooking demonstration, and live presentations at Cañon City High School. SOURCE: CAÑON CITY DAILY RECORD By Debra Beaulieu
Less than a generation ago, it was not uncommon for physicians to smoke, even in hospitals and their offices. Today, with the U.S. obesity epidemic at an all-time high and about 44 percent of physicians classified as overweight or obese (according to a 2004 study), experts are calling for a similar disappearance of excess calories in physicians' work environments. SOURCE: FIERCE PRACTICE MANAGEMENT By Karen Cheung-Larivee
Surgeons point to a lack of control over operating rooms and other resources as a reason why they are dissatisfied, according to a study in the journal Academic Medicine. SOURCE: FIERCE HEALTHCARE By Susan Ladika
After Confluence Technologies Inc., a Pittsburgh-based manufacturer of software products for the financial services industry, introduced its wellness incentives program, the company found it was a big hit — with those who were already physically active. Now it's taking a different tack, tying health insurance deductibles and copayments to participation in various wellness activities, such as filling out a health questionnaire and taking part in a biometric screening. SOURCE: WORKFORCE By Bennett Watanabe
In yet another health initiative, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is seeking to cut all sugary and fatty foods from public and private hospitals in New York City. Under the Healthy Hospital Food Initiative, a set of New York City Food Standards implemented at the end of September, hospitals food is regulated in four sections: cafeterias, food vending machines, beverage vending machines, and patient meals. These standards are consistent with U.S. Department of Agriculture Dietary Guidelines for a healthy diet and uses progressive approaches to make healthy foods more available. SOURCE: WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS 
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