Dear Health Care Executives:

Can you believe the school year is just around the corner? For those of you who have children in your lives, have you thought about being healthy when it comes to packing lunches or providing healthier lunch options? Have you thought about your own lunch? Maybe by giving yourself healthier lunch options you might save a few pounds and a few pennies. In an attempt to continue the wellness efforts you already have going for you, why don’t you take it one step further and think about the food you eat throughout the day. Start this fall off right.

This edition of the BWB will provide new ways to inspire and invigorate wellness programs and spark some ideas around your organization’s benefit offerings. Be a source of wellbeing for your organization—be a benefits and wellness leader. Also, find inspirational stories here in the ASHHRA Benefits and Wellness Bulletin (BWB) to keep you on your wellness journey. 

ASHHRA appreciates your dedication to health care, and we will continue to improve in assisting you in the way you do your work. Please feel free to email me at sdrake@aha.org for any reason—we are here to serve you, our valued members. Just a reminder, you can read this edition of the BWB on your smart phone—to learn more, click here.

Sincerely,

Stephanie H. Drake

ASHHRA Executive Director

As the annual benefit planning season draws near, hospitals are facing some of the same struggles over fine-tuning their plans as other employers trying to meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act.

As employers consider their health care and total rewards strategies with the context of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, nearly half expect voluntary benefits and services to become more important than ever over the next five years, according to the Towers Watson 2013 Voluntary Benefits and Services Survey.
SOURCE: BENEFITS PRO

Much has been written about how the Supreme Court’s DOMA ruling could impact employee benefits. Well here’s the first court ruling in which it actually has. And there are implications for HR pros.  

Once a company benefit available only to top-tier executives, financial advice is becoming a mainstream employee perk.

In a recent, nationwide survey of more than 1,000 401(k) plan participants, the majority of respondents seem aware that they are primarily on their own for their retirement saving, and they plan to rely mostly on their defined contribution plan to get there. However, according to the Schwab poll, many find information on their 401(k) confusing and lack confidence on managing their retirement savings.

Even when offered health coverage by their employer, nearly half of millennials opted not to accept it. This rather startling insight into this independent-minded generation was among the findings of ADP’s "Annual Health Benefits Report: 2013 Benchmarks and Trends for Large Companies," which identified trends in employer-provided health benefits between 2010 and 2013.

For the second year in a row, health insurance premiums for job-based family coverage rose a relatively modest 4 percent, reflecting slowed health spending.

If you've seen this summer’s movie "The Internship," starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, you got an inside look at a number of lavish employee perks Google is known for. From free food to beach volleyball to sleep pods, Google places heavy emphasis on treating its employees well.

Technology is improving the way employee benefits are managed and delivered by employers as well as marketed and sold by brokers. According to "Tapping the Potential of Technology," the fourth in a series of research briefs stemming from The Prudential Insurance Company of America’s Seventh Annual Study of Employee Benefits: Today & Beyond, three-fifths of employers—primarily those with more than 500 employees—report using an administrative platform to manage their benefits programs. Of those, 62 percent rate the use of their platforms as "effective," with another 37 percent rating it "highly effective." 

Health savings accounts (HSAs) have grown to an estimated $18.1 billion in assets representing over 9.1 million accounts at midyear 2013, according to the semi-annual HSA survey conducted by Devenir.

There’s something to be said for a real lunch hour where everyone gathers together in the same place to eat and socialize. But now you’re quietly judged no matter what you do. Leave the office for an hour to actually eat out at a restaurant with a colleague – you’re branded a slacker who’s never in the office. And those desk diners remain convinced they’re harder workers than you.

Online solutions designed to educate employees and help them make better life choices may be moving from the "maybe they work" zone to the "they do work!" zone.

There must have been a fast-talking wellness plan salesman going through the country last year. The number of companies reporting that they offer such plans leapt 11 percent between 2011 and 2013.

Need a kick in the butt when it comes to weight loss? Your workplace may have just the motivation you’re looking for. New research from the University of Texas at Arlington suggests that financial incentives are effective in encouraging employees to lose weight—and that they have the potential to help a business’s bottom line, too.
SOURCE: MENSFITNESS.COM

How are your employees feeling these days? It’s a question you might want to ask yourself in advance of new Obacamare rules that will give employers unprecedented leeway to use financial rewards and penalties to incentivize workers to get and stay healthy. Depending on the makeup of your workforce, that could have a big impact on your company’s health care costs in the short- and long-term. 

Mission Hospital has received the NC Prevention Partners 2013 Gold Medal, Gold Apple, and Gold Star Awards in acknowledgement of its exceptional employee wellness programs. Mission Hospital met the NC Prevention Partners standards for all three of its gold awards, which include recognition for physical activity, nutrition, and tobacco-free initiatives.

Companies are increasingly recognizing the benefit of investing in corporate wellness programs to reduce employee health care costs over time. The increased awareness of the cost savings resulting from corporate wellness programs is certainly commendable. However, many companies turn to word-of-mouth corporate wellness programs rather than relying on evidence-based programs. It is important for those in charge of corporate wellness within a company to remember the health interventions that work for them as individuals might not work for other employees unless evidence-based. There is no "U" in corporate wellness!

Depressed people take more time off work than people who do not suffer from depression.

Government leaders of Eagle County, Colorado, introduced an employee-wellness program in 2007 with a clear goal: Drive down what they considered "unsustainable health care costs." But their program initially overlooked what some health-promotion practitioners describe as a small but pivotal group: the healthiest workers.

In early June, the three federal agencies generally charged with interpreting Obamacare's requirements—the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury—issued final regulations on employer wellness programs. They appear to be different and more complex than a proposed version issued in 2012, and they may trip employers up.

As part of its Wellness@Work program, Heffernan Insurance Brokers recently launched a bike program effort. The firm now has a number of bicycles available to employees during office hours in its Walnut Creek, California, headquarters and Menlo Park branch.

It was time for us to ramp up our wellness activities. We hoped that helping staffers live healthier lives might help us with those ever-rising healthcare costs. We knew that it was crucial to get employees involved, but we also knew they were only half of the challenge. Getting staffers’ spouses and dependents on board would really help us in the long run. But first, we needed to get buy-in from staff.