Dear Health Care Executives:

Spring is here, so you should be thinking about changing up your workout, setting new fitness goals, exploring nutritious recipes, signing up for a race, or simply brushing dust off your new bike. If anything, you should continue to be eager about your healthy expedition for life. This journey is a marathon—not a sprint. You may have setbacks from time to time, but don’t beat yourself up. Several small changes towards a healthier life style will add up and improve your wellbeing.

This edition of the Benefits and Wellness Bulletin (BWB) will provide new ways to inspire and invigorate your wellness initiatives and possibly save you dollars in all of your organizations as it pertains to wellness and benefits. You can even read this edition of the BWB on your smart phone while on a treadmill—to learn more, click here. We are here to help inspire you and your employees around improving your life and wellbeing.

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.

Sincerely,

I always like an excuse to plan a party or event, so here’s a good reason to plan something for your workforce during the month of April. Financial Literacy Month actually evolved from Financial Literacy Day, first introduced by the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) more than a decade ago, who then turned Financial Literacy Day over to the national Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, which expanded the day into Financial Literacy Month. During the month, schools and employers are encouraged to focus on financial literacy initiatives.

So how do Americans really feel about retirement saving and investing? According to a new Franklin Templeton Investments survey, 73 percent of respondents report they find thinking about retirement saving and investing causes them stress and anxiety.

Health care prices in January 2013 were 1.5 percent higher than in January 2012, the lowest reading since a 1.3 percent rate in December 1997. The 12-month moving average at 2 percent is also the lowest since a 1.9 percent figure recorded in November 1998, new analysis finds.

A very small percentage of Baby Boomers are planning for how and when they will claim their Social Security, according to a survey by Securian Financial Group. Only 18 percent have made decisions about how they will claim Social Security, but half of those have tweaked their plans within the last three years, said Michelle Hall, manager of Market Research.

Employees have been taking increasingly positive actions in their 401(k) plans since 2009, widening the gap between those taking negative actions, according to a report from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Food can play an important role in motivating employees to spend more time in the office, work more effectively while there and generally view their workplace more positively, finds a nationwide survey of nearly 1,100 full-time professionals across more than a dozen different industries. The survey by Seamless, the leading service for ordering delivery and takeout from restaurants in the U.S. and U.K., also reveals the importance of food as a means for building and fostering relationships with clients.

MetLife's 11th Annual Study of Employee Benefits Trends, released today, reveals that while only two out of five U.S. workers would strongly recommend their employer as a "great place to work," those who do are three times more likely to be satisfied with their benefits.

Disability insurance experts with the Guardian Life Insurance Company have developed an index for measuring and predicting the success of companies' absence management programs in conjunction with their short-term and long-term disability. Guardian's Andrew Hutchison, assistant vice president of group life and disability products, and Judy Buczek, manager of group disability products, are taking the opportunity to encourage small and midsize employers who haven't yet implemented absence management to do so.

For plan sponsors, 2013 is a year of crossing Ts and dotting Is on PPACA compliance for their health care plans and strategizing for next year, when the employer mandate and public exchanges go into effect. The health care reform law has many moving parts and a great deal of regulations yet to come, which will keep benefits professionals on their toes all year.

There's a pretty notable gender gap when it comes to confidence in one's ability to retire and still stay within one's current means. So suggest the latest findings of a survey conducted by American United Life Insurance Co., a OneAmerica company. According to the OneAmerica Retirement Plan Participant Survey, 45 percent of men (out of a total of 6,360 respondents) said they were either "confident" or "very confident" when asked if they believe they will be able to retire and maintain their current lifestyle. Only 33 percent of women gave the same responses. In contrast, 44 percent of women and 36 percent of men say they're "not sure."

Even through volatile economic conditions, employers have demonstrated a commitment to the 401(k) system, according to the results of a study released by WorldatWork, in partnership with the American Benefits Institute, the research and education affiliate of the American Benefits Council.

As employers complain about how hard it is to find workers with the skills they need, retaining top performers becomes more and more crucial. So the question becomes, what do employees really want? Let’s take a step back and look at the big picture.

What are wellness programs and why do many organizations offer them to their employees? Traditional wellness programs include nutrition and weight control, smoking cessation, fitness, and stress reduction. Companies have found that these programs provide a significant return on investment, for the employer, the employee and their families.

Employees who received financial incentives were more likely to stick with a weight loss program and lose more weight than those who did not receive incentives.

Pressure is high on HR/benefits managers to keep health costs in line, and wellness program vendors promise to relieve that pressure—too many of them through "get well quick" schemes like the six outlined here. Knowledge is power, as the saying goes, and knowing the truth behind these common wellness myths could be the key to unlocking untold health cost savings.

Forget mystery meat and green Jell-O. Those typical hospital foods that have been ridiculed for years are being replaced by more nutritious fare, such as flatbread pizzas, turkey meatloaf, heart-shaped frozen yogurt desserts, baked chicken and baked French fries. The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) is announcing that as many as 400 more hospitals, which use Morrison Healthcare Food Services, are joining PHA's program to offer healthier fare to patients, visitors and employees. Overall, as many as 550 hospitals will now be participating in the program. Michelle Obama is the honorary chairwoman of PHA, a non-profit that shares the same mission as the first lady's Let's Move! campaign (letsmove.gov)—to reduce childhood obesity.

Employees at the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UMass Lowell) are taking a stand for better health. A small group of volunteers has been provided with treadmills and sit-to-stand electric desks in their offices. It is part of a pilot program to determine whether workers can remain safe and productive while moving on the job.

Millennials are loosely defined as the 75 million young adults born between 1980 and 2000 and make up about one-third of today’s U.S. workforce. Although this generation has been called everything from "innovative" to "entitled," the recent Stress in America study from the American Psychological Association has a different label for them: Stressed.

You can forget about buying a vanilla latte or a Mountain Dew at Grand Itasca Hospital in Grand Rapids, Minn. It’s become the second medical center in Minnesota—after St. Luke’s in Duluth—to ban the sale of sugary beverages. In the past few months, the two hospitals and their clinics have joined a small but growing national movement to rid medical centers of the popular drinks, which have been linked to obesity and diabetes.

It's time for a food fight. For years we've talked about the physical, emotional, spiritual, and financial effects of overweight and obesity on our society. This month, for example, the American Diabetes Association issued a report which estimated that the nearly 22.3 million Americans who are diagnosed with diabetes cost $245 billion in medical care and lost productivity in 2012. That represents a 41 percent increase from the $174 billion estimate in 2007.

Hospitals are strengthening their commitment to offering healthy food choices, with more than 400 hospitals joining the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), USA Today reported. The hospitals pledge to use nutrition labeling and healthy food marketing, eliminate deep fat fryers, and offer more fruits and vegetables, among other improvements.

While many companies across the country are seeing positive results and cost savings through their workplace wellness programs, a new study from Health Affairs suggests that the savings employers may strive for with these programs may more likely come from cost shifting to the most vulnerable employees rather than employees’ improved health.

During his recent State of the Union speech, I was delighted to see President Obama acknowledge the unsupportable rising costs of health care in this country but sadly, his proposals would barely make a dent. The U.S. currently spends about $2.7 trillion per year on health care and along with this cost, U.S. employers experience another $300 billion annually in lost productivity due to illness and poor employee health—and each year, health care costs are rising by almost $300 billion.

Are employee wellness programs good investments for employers? The intuitive answer to that program would be a strong yes. Logic would say that keeping workforces healthy accomplishes two significant goals—strengthening productivity by reducing absenteeism and containing the rise in health care costs borne by employers.

The U.S. public is very supportive of government action aimed at changing lifestyle choices that can lead to obesity, diabetes and other noncommunicable diseases—except if interventions are viewed as intrusive or coercive.

Quality hospital food isn't necessarily an oxymoron. More hospitals, including those in the Fox Valley, are reworking menus to make them healthier and appealing. The Partnership for a Healthier America recently announced as many as 400 more hospitals across the country, which use Morrison Healthcare Food Services, are joining the organization's program to offer healthier options to patients, visitors, and employees.

More code browns than you can count? Patients driving you up the wall? Tired of being, well, tired? We feel ya! Nursing’s a tough job, and it’s guaranteed that every once in a while, you’re going to have one of Those Days when you wonder what possessed you to become a nurse in the first place. But on those days especially, it’s super important to have a way to cheer yourself up on (or after) your shift! We asked our Facebook fans for their top mood-boosting tips when they’re having rough days—read on for their funny and helpful ideas!