Dear ASHHRA Member:

The holidays are here, and we are enjoying time with family and friends. Remember not to get carried away with too many holiday cookies and eggnog. We need to make sure we are fit and trim the first of the year. In this issue of the Benefits and Wellness Bulletin (BWB) learn about some new techniques for staying fit over the holidays. 

Every edition of the BWB will provide you with case studies, best practices, and worthwhile data to aid you in your wellness programs and benefit offerings. 

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. 

Happy holidays from the ASHHRA team!

Sincerely, 

Senior Executive Director, Professional Services

American Hospital Association

Executive Director, ASHHRA of the AHA

Next year stands to be a pivotal year for employee benefits—particularly as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act continues to shake out, likely propelling the sale of voluntary benefits products even further, experts say.

What does next year look like for retirement plan sponsors and participants? Here’s an early call on what many experts expect to see.

Get through open enrollment this year, and begin the process of reviewing your organization’s strategic and compliance plans for the ACA come 2015. 

Social Security is based on a simple idea: pay for retirement benefits through payroll taxes levied on workers and employers. But that’s where the simplicity ends. Prospective retirees need to consider how to maximize their benefits and those of their spouses. Even the age when benefits are first collected has a great impact on how much is received each month.

The big story in 2014 for employee benefits—after health care reform—is the substantial role that voluntary benefits plays for employers and their employees. Both traditional and non-traditional voluntary benefits are making their way to the forefront of the benefits package that employers will offer next year.

There are plenty of positives in moving your participants into a Roth 401(k), but the costs—and the long-term stability of government promises themselves—may require extra thought.

For the past 20 years, annuities have been on the cusp of greatness. But now they’ve arrived, according to Douglas Dubitsky, vice president and head of product management at Guardian Retirement Solutions in New York City.

As the health care industry tries to address the nationwide obesity crisis, one California hospital has figured out a way to help its dangerously overweight workforce shed pounds by developing a corporate health plan around social sharing and gamification—the use of game-like activities in typically non-game situations.

In the war against overeating, the holiday season presents a virtual minefield of tempting sweets and sumptuous feasts that can result in unwanted pounds.

An alignment of interests, commitment to long-term success, understanding what makes employees function best—that’s what separates highly effective organizations from the rest of the pack.

Reports of the flu have been increasing, particularly in the South. But it's nothing like last year, when flu hit early and very hard in early December.

During the holidays you have a lot going—a lot more than usual, anyway. The addition of travel, family, and year-end work quotas can make you feel like the stress is piling on.

Most company wellness programs lean heavily on biometric screenings/health risk assessments to be successful at driving down health spending. The problem is many workers aren’t willing to participate in these evaluations, making it hard to get wellness initiatives off the ground. 

The U.S. spends $2.7 trillion a year on health care, more than any other country by far, and yet we are not healthy. Lots of people know this state of affairs is not sustainable. They also know that, to create a healthier nation, we must focus on more than just treating illness. We must create opportunities to pursue the healthiest lives possible, wherever we live, work, learn, and play. So, my big idea for 2014 is the emergence of a Culture of Health.

Wellness programs are commonly setting weight goals for employees, but most often are paired with employer health plans denying coverage for evidence-based obesity treatment.

Both workers and employers agree: Stress is the No. 1 workforce risk issue. Where they don’t agree: The causes of stress and burnout. Even worse, employers seem to be missing the boat on helping their people deal with these issues. 

When I began my graduate studies in Clinical Nutrition at New York University in 2000, rates of obesity in the U.S. were on an upward trajectory with no end in sight. The term Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) wasn't yet in the vernacular, however those of us in the nutrition community were about to get familiar with it, and fast. Caused primarily by insufficient exercise and a diet rich in sugar, salt, and fat, a MetS diagnosis nearly guarantees a future of diabetes, heart disease, and/or stroke.

There seems to be no getting around it: Wellness plans, properly designed and implemented, work. Yet more evidence comes to us from an awards selection process executed by The Principal, an investment management firm. The Principal, in compiling a list of 10 small to medium sized companies with very low employee turnover, discovered that all the companies offered some type of wellness program.

Deck the halls with boughs of holly, put the fudge on the dining room table, and watch your belly acquire five extra pounds of pudge. If you want to avoid that recipe for holiday weight gain disaster this year, Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Mike Roizen, authors of "YOU: On A Diet: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management," want to help. They unveiled their 10 best diet tips for the holidays in their Dec. 15 column.

Lockton says that wellness programs, properly designed and implemented, can address the problem by helping obese workers lose weight.