Dear ASHHRA Member:

The beautiful fall colors are here, and for many of you, open enrollment. We hope that over the last several months in planning for your open enrollment, you used ideas from this dynamic publication. We all know your leadership is asking each of you to justify every last penny spent around benefits—so hopefully you have adopted a best practice or two found here. 

ASHHRA will continue to provide you with case studies, best practices, and worthwhile data to aid you in your benefit offerings and wellness programs. 

I have a challenge for you: please make sure in your busy day to try to take a walk and enjoy this gorgeous autumn. This will be great for your mind and energize you to continue on your journey. 

If you should need more information around any best practices here or ideas in benefits and wellness, please feel free to email me directly at sdrake@aha.org. 

Sincerely, 

Senior Executive Director, Professional Services

American Hospital Association

Executive Director, ASHHRA of the AHA

sdrake@aha.org

Employee benefits play a key role in attracting, motivating, and retaining talent, so it’s understandable employers want their workers to make the most of the benefits they’re offered. By gaining greater understanding of worker attitudes toward benefits—and the underlying drivers of satisfaction—companies can better harness the power of their benefits to increase worker engagement and ultimately productivity. This is particularly important this time of year as we gear up for enrollment season.

Relatively few Medicare beneficiaries switch Part D prescription drug plans voluntarily during open enrollment—even when savings are available.

Health savings accounts and consumer-directed health plans are surging in popularity these days. The allure of lower premiums and consumer engagement is powerful, but it may not work in the end. The reason? Our very human preference for simplicity, rather than complexity.

Stung by a recession that sapped investments and home values, but expressing widespread job satisfaction, older Americans appear to have accepted the reality of a retirement that comes later in life and no longer represents a complete exit from the workforce.
SOURCE: BENEFITS PRO

Most employers are still sorting out how to react to the Supreme Court’s decision to repeal portions of the Defense of Marriage Act, according to a survey of 285 plan sponsors by Towers Watson.

Employees who are engaged are more likely to be in better health, eat well, and exercise frequently than their disengaged counterparts, according to a report from the Gallup Business Journal.

Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente and the 29 unions representing its employees are offering up to $500 bonuses to groups of workers who lose weight, lower their blood pressure, stop smoking, and lower their cholesterol levels, according to a report in the Merced Sun-Star.

When I present employee education sessions, employees often ask me what they should be doing in their 401(k) plan.

Can an employer that sponsors a wellness program or a condition management program get any short-term productivity gains? Rebecca Mitchell and other researchers at OptumHealth contend in a new paper that it's possible. The researchers look at the effects of telephone-based health promotion programs provided by their company in a paper published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The sizzle of fresh tilapia, crisp green beans, topped with gorgeous grilled vegetables. Chef Jesse Sturm is working hard to offer healthy, delicious foods. In a place not exactly known for it. "That is not what you expect at the hospital," he said. "We’re trying to break some of the stereotypes of what’s going on in the hospital."

According to research from Sun Life Financial, most workers fear financial ruin more than death. And that fear is well-founded, shows Harvard-led research cited by the company.

A federal lawmaker is asking the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate employer wellness programs that seek intimate health information from employees, and to issue guidelines preventing employers from using such programs to discriminate against workers.

Like anything else that becomes suddenly beyond popular, wellness plans are encountering blowback as more employers adopt them and fiddle with the incentive dials.

More Massachusetts hospital workers are getting flu shots, but new data show the numbers remain below the goal set by state regulators, who say the lack of vaccinations exposes patients to a heightened risk of infection.

Forget the gift card. If you want to make wellness work well at your company, Jamie Mills suggests that you aim higher. Make taking good care of yourself a way of life and a part of the company's culture, then you won't have to spend time and money trying to get employees to participate in your wellness program, and you just may see better results, Mills said.

High blood pressure, high cholesterol, gastrointestinal disease, and back pain are among the top-10 health problems reported by employees, making stress-related and preventable health ailments among the most prevalent in the workplace, according to a recent report from employee assistance provider ComPsych Corp.

Health insurer Aetna Inc. sees staving off metabolic syndrome as good for its workforce’s health and productivity. That’s why the Hartford, Connecticut-based company provides a financial incentive to its 35,000 U.S. employees who lower their risk of developing the medical disorder.