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Volume 14 Issue 48 |
December 10, 2011 |
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 raditionally,
health and wellness is considered an individual or solo
endeavor, but we're all touched by this collective unhealthy
lifestyle we've developed in America. The only way we are
going to truly combat that is if we take a social approach.
We can't do it alone." Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Founder and Chief
Medical Officer, ShapeUp
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Employer Wellness Program Data
This week
ShapeUp, a corporate wellness company, released results from
their 2011 Employer Wellness Survey, conducted in partnership
with The Parthenon Group. The survey incorporated interviews
with executive wellness and benefits decision makers for large
national self-insured employers who are listed in the survey
report.
Some of the findings from the survey include:
| * |
Engagement is consistently cited as the number one
priority of employers even though the primary reason
wellness programs exist is to address rising health care
costs |
| * |
Participation rates vary significantly across
programs, from a low of 5% to a high of 95% |
| * |
75% of companies offer some type of incentive for
participation, with an average of $375 |
| * |
Wellness budgets are typically 1-3% of total
healthcare spend; program design and focus varies
between companies |
| * |
If budgets were cut in half, many companies would
reduce financial incentives but keep health assessments
or biometric screening for data collection purposes and
to promote employee health awareness |
| * |
Employers average 4.5 vendors to manage all wellness
programs |
| * |
50% of employers feel Health Risk Assessments are a
waste of money |
Average participation rates for selected wellness
programming among survey participants were:
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Health Risk Assessment - 66% |
| * |
Biometric Screening - 52% |
| * |
Exercise Program - 23% |
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Lifestyle Coaching - 21% |
The survey report also cited data from other national
studies including:
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45% of all U.S. companies offer employee wellness
programs |
| * |
91% of employers with more than 5,000 employees
offer web-based wellness programs; 81% offer smoking
cessation programs; 71% offer gym memberships or onsite
fitness; 70% offer weight loss programs; and 64% offer
personal health coaches |
| * |
For employers with 1,000 to 4,999 employees, their
offerings of some of these programs are 87% - web-based
wellness programs; 62% - weight loss programs; and 51% -
personal health coaches |
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For employers offering applicable programs, the
employee participation rates are: 46% for HRAs with
incentives and 19% without incentives; 45% for biometric
screenings with incentives and 25% without incentives;
and 16% for disease management with incentives and 14%
without incentives |
For More Information:
ShapeUp Releases Results From First
Annual Large Employer Wellness Survey
ShapeUp Press Release,
December 6, 2011
http://www.shapeup.com/news/article/shapeup-releases-results-from-first-annual-large-employer-wellness-survey
2011 Employer Wellness Survey
ShapeUp, December 2011
http://www.shapeup.com/survey
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1.
Access to Widen on Medicare Data
The Wall Street Journal
reports that in an abrupt policy change, the Department of
Health and Human Services will make its huge Medicare claims
database more broadly available to the public, to help consumers
and employers make better-informed decisions about medical care.
Wall Street Journal, December 8, 2011
2.
Top court schedules Obama healthcare law briefs
Reuters
reports that the Supreme Court on Thursday set the schedule for
briefs to be filed ahead of hearing arguments in late March over
President Barack Obama's sweeping healthcare overhaul law.
Reuters, December 8, 2011
3.
State Funding for Health Centers Reaches Lowest Level in Seven
Years
The National Association of Community Health
Centers (NACHC) reports that Community Health Centers are
struggling with a steep decline in state funding for the fourth
straight year.
National Association of Community Health
Centers, December 7, 2011
4.
Massachusetts rated top health-care spender
Bloomberg
News reports that Massachusetts, where a higher percentage of
the population has health insurance than anywhere else in the
U.S., spent more per person than any state on medical care, a
new report shows.
Bloomberg News via Seattle Times, December
8, 2011
5.
CMS Nears $2 Billion in Meaningful Use Payments
Health
Data Management reports that through November 2011, Medicare and
Medicaid have each paid nearly $1 billion in electronic health
records meaningful use incentive payments during the first year
of the program.
Health Data Management, December 7, 2011
6.
House bill to raise Medicare premiums for wealthy
The
Associated Press reports that House Republicans intend to
propose a gradual increase in Medicare premiums for wealthy
seniors to help cover the cost of renewing Social Security
payroll tax cuts and benefits for the long-term unemployed,
officials said Wednesday.
Associated Press via Yahoo!,
December 6, 2011
7.
Home Health Advocates Push Remote Monitoring In Medicare
Kaiser Health News reports that home care technology can play a
critical role in keeping patients out of hospitals and at home,
but many providers believe new policies should be used to
encourage its adoption.
Kaiser Health News, December 6, 2011
8.
Too few doctors may be telling parents their kids are overweight
The LA Times reports that parents can sometimes be clueless
about the fact that their kids are too heavy, but doctors may
not be steering them in the right direction.
Los Angeles
Times, December 5, 2011
9.
Labor Department Seeks Tougher Rules on 'Multiple-Employer'
Plans
The New York Times reports that federal officials
hope to crack down more effectively on operators of "multiple
employer" health plans that have defrauded small businesses and
their workers of hundreds of millions of dollars, often leaving
them stuck with unpaid medical bills, according to new rules
proposed Monday by the Obama administration under the health
care legislation.
New York Times, December 5, 2011
10.
Feds to allow use of Medicare data to rate doctors
The
Associated Press reports that picking a specialist for a
delicate medical procedure like a heart bypass could get a lot
easier in the not-too-distant future.
Associated Press via SF
Chronicle, December 5, 2011
11.
Employers consider cutting health-insurance premiums for
lower-paid workers
The Washington Post reports: At most
companies, employee health insurance premiums vary only by
family size and type of plan. At a small percentage of firms,
however, another variable is taken into account: salary.
Washington Post, December 5, 2011
12.
Health Official Takes Parting Shot at 'Waste'
The New
York Times reports that the official in charge of Medicare and
Medicaid for the last 17 months says that 20 percent to 30
percent of health spending is "waste" that yields no benefit to
patients, and that some of the needless spending is a result of
onerous, archaic regulations enforced by his agency.
New
York Times, December 4, 2011
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Upcoming Webinars:
California Healthcare Environment: A Forecast for 2012, December
15, 2011
Benchmarking Employer Onsite Health and Fitness Centers, January
19, 2012
Managing Patient Security & Privacy on New Data-Sharing
Playground, January 25, 2012
Future Care Web Summit, January 26, 2012
Transparent Cost Networks: A Consumer Driven Solution, February
9, 2012
Check out CD-ROMs of
past HealthcareWebSummit events on a wide range of
key topics at
www.healthwebsummit.com/cdroms.htm
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