Financial Wellness

Some 54% of Americans don't take their medicines or follow a treatment plan as prescribed by their healthcare provider. 61.1% of Americans under 65 years of age are insured through their employers, a significant opportunity to improve health and stay well.

There is a need for carriers to staff thousands of meetings each year with either their own staff or independent enrollers. There is a trend in using a call center and online self-serve websites but the personal touch is still viewed as the gold standard.

The report by CRN Foundation highlights that save 50%, save 40% and remember to save more when you buy more. If only healthcare expenses for employers were like that, like if we just decide with the notion not to spend money.

Financial wellness is integral to employee health and productivity, playing a pivotal role in employee health decisions. Therefore, as employers are beginning to recognize the need for a holistic approach to wellness, more financial wellness initiatives need to be integrated into these programs to create a healthier workforce, in the real sense of it.

Financial wellness is effectively managing your economic life and this simple concept encompasses many factors. The underlying concept of financial wellness is financial security, one of the most common goals reported by employees across all sectors.

Financial wellness benefits have been a growing topic of interest among employers, but before you introduce this offering to your organization, it’s important to identify why you want to make this investment in the first place. I know this one seems obvious, right? But bear with me. There are a lot of misconceptions about the role and impact of financial wellness benefits, and I want to take the time to explain how they can improve financial health—and why they’re better than other financially-focused benefits. When someone has poor financial health, they can’t manage, take action, or prepare for their current and future financial needs. This can lead to insecurity, anxiety, and stress about their financial situation.

Business leaders now more than ever have to up their financial wellness plan to better equip workers with resources and tools to improve their financial wellbeing and, in turn, productivity. 

A worrisome number of Americans suffer from financial stress these days, and the fact is that they are paying the price at home and on the job.

As our corporate structures morph before our eyes, new business models and cultures are emerging and blooming like anything. One of the favorite photos and inspiration for the title of this piece is that of three people looking at a massive white board.

Imagine receiving your credit card bill every month, and the only information you're provided is an amount due and due date. But you should be responsible and decide to check your bill for accuracy.

Employers are moving away from viewing health benefits as a cost of doing business and are seeing it as a strategic investment. Health and worksite wellness programs bring value by reduce both direct medical cost and indirect cost on lower productivity.

Once a healthcare reform law is fully implemented, a huge number of employers will drop or restructure their healthcare benefits. The study did not deliberate the matter with the same as other studies did.

Two vital and innovative trends in the workplace- wellness and voluntary benefits- have great potential to bring happiness. Wellness and voluntary benefits each present new paradigms for employee benefits.

Majority of the employers are understanding the advantage of wellness programs and are doing what it takes to implement. According to health guru, our system need not incentivize anyone to get preventive care except for the employer.

It takes a sound plan and unwavering commitment from key players to create wellness initiatives that impact the overall health. Identifying champions who support and foster the initiative are crucial for increasing participation and engagement.

If you run a company with in-house 1000 employees then you can save million dollars by instituting corporate wellness programs. A study by Duke University researchers highlighted that almost 66 percent of the Americans are either overweight or obese.

Insurance Companies and TPA's are in the risk business and, while worksite clinic managers are in the provider business. The risk is hard to manage because of the lifestyles and behaviors of Americans.

May is Disability Insurance Awareness month, which is an ideal time to make sure employees are educated about disability insurance. If disabled and without income, employees may risk losing their savings, retirement funds or even their home.

Many of us are relieved the holiday rush has ended, yet we feel anxiety as we wait for our credit card bills to arrive. The majority of the U.S. residents have noticed that we reside in an almost cashless society, credit cards are the form of payment.

70% of chronic disease in the U.S. is preventable and attributed to factors- tobacco, overweight, blood pressure, and cholesterol. Americans, while saving money for the future spend $2.5 trillion on healthcare and still ranks 17 on overall health index.

The gap between nutritional behavior and what scientists say can be achieved with better nutrition is growing faster. There is scant evidence that many people are adopting truly healthy diets, as can be seen by some recent statistics.

The movement represents growth and is a universal principle if we're not moving and growing means we are unhealthy and stagnant. The principle of movement is essential for healthy bodies and applies equally to individuals and to corporations.

The ACA will have numerous effects on the healthcare industry, most notably to insurance agents, brokers, Medicare and patients. Large groups with 100 or more enrollees must now spend at least 85% of their premiums on medical care.

Arguments for worksite wellness erosion of employer-based insurance might threaten one of the most effective battlefronts. Despite the strong rationale for traditional wellness, there is an ongoing debate regarding its return on investment.

Is your ROI really the ROI which you planned, or the one you are getting due to some unplanned absenteeism or other issues. When we count the cost of caregiving for others, being elderly parents or sick and disabled children, are unplanned absenteeism.

Analytics is the practice of creating actionable information through the analysis of data, analytics and reporting are different. The difference is that reporting provides a retrospective, flat statistics while analytics are forward-looking and multidimensional.

Better wellness programs educate employees about healthy choices and provide the support and motivation employees need to make. Significant results can help employers control healthcare costs, improve employee productivity and enhance engagement.

As the author of this piece about the facts concerning skin cancer, I find myself compelled to update the article. The tax purportedly underwrites a massive expansion in the federal government's role in health care, while discouraging Americans.

As business is taken care of by the people, it is mandatory to take care of the people in terms of health and wellness. But many things depend on the risk to spend money and further getting ROI on the investment made and that initiate debates.

As VOI has gained a lot of traction in the past, some industry questions the value of ROI in worksite wellness evaluation. Amidst all of the smoke and mirrors, a couple of recent surveys suggest that VOI can complement - not replace.

Corporate wellness programs have been reported to improve employee health, productivity, and yield a significant ROI. Portions of these reports and studies are solid but the data from most respected corporations are incomplete.

Recently corporate wellness has done little more than looking good on paper, ie, it has impacted the lives of employees overall. Though wellness programs are now prevalent, still the results they yield are not as satisfactory as it was expected.

On-the-job injuries involve chronic pain for injured workers and long-term liability for workers' compensation self-insured payors. CDC and SAMHSA indicate increasing misuse and abuse of narcotics over the past decade.

The question is not whether healthier employees are more productive, how we motivate employees and dependents to change. Employees are not afraid of getting healthy, they are afraid of losing their healthcare but with health reforms, coverage is guaranteed.

While tackling the entire problem of the rising cost of healthcare will require a great deal change without our current system. Transferring costs of employees, implementing high deductible health plans and attempting to create greater accountability.

With the recession in the economy which hit in 2009, business owners should have to do more with less and still find the best talent. Increase in complex workforce makes employers find ways to offer quality benefits affordable to employees and companies.

Maximizing resources for enhancing worker capacity and sustaining a competitive edge is more important than ever before. Success depends on insightful decision-making and problem-solving, as well as an intuitive ability to lead the business unit.

As the concept of offering a pension plan for retirement has faded, it is largely replaced by employee-led 401(k). As pension disappear, American workers have begun to face the fact that most of their retirement outcome is in their own hands.

As the new year is approaching there are many smokers going to ditch the nasty habit of smoking as a resolution. People are aware of the habit and it's totally possible and easy to quit smoking provided the inner voice should raise concern for the same.

Open enrolment might prove to be more confusing for workers and could result in added costly mistakes regarding benefit decisions. Majority of employers will make changes to their healthcare options this year, like offeing health savings plan.

The ACA allows employers to reduce the cost of employees' health insurance premiums if they participated in health boost programs. The recent rules allow employers to offer premium reductions of up to 30 percent for employees active in wellness programs.

Faced with uncertainty, the knowledge that budgets will not be increased to cover current healthcare plans in the future. More HR professionals are looking for voluntary benefits to create a robust benefits package.

Many Americans have a false sense of security and safety about injuries and prefer to believe they happen only to others. According to CDC, more than 80 million injury-related visits to doctors' offices, hospital outpatient departments, and emergency-treatment facilities.

As healthcare reform shifts into high gear, a growing number of employers recognize the value of convenient, streamlined health info. They are investing in mobile health (mhealth), the use of mobile technology devices and smartphone apps.

Recruiting and retaining quality employees is an easier affair if the employees understand the value they receive from the investment. Employees with a better understanding of the total benefits plan will participate more in the plan.

As the number of patients using specialty drugs and the number of specialty drugs approved, cost containment is a big concern. The trend in specialty drug dispensing continues to move from the medical benefit to the pharmacy benefit.

Providing Financial incentives to encourage employee participation in health and wellness programs has increased recently. The incentives are popular because they increase program participation, but it's important to get desired outcomes.

Wellness is a $6 billion dollar industry, with such a large expenditure, one would expect that employers would be reducing that cost. It can be done through wellness and other programs rather than simply shopping for the cheapest coverage plan.

Measuring the Return on Investment has been an extremely controversial topic among wellness professionals for quite some time. Studies suggest that worksite wellness programs do influence healthy behaviors and improve risks.

The healthcare reform legislation enacted this past spring, known as the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The coverage extends to all Level A and B services recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

eProcurement is a uniform and centrally controlled paperless, web-based enterprise process that tightly integrates procurement. MLR to spend 80 percent of premiums on care for individual and small group policies and 85 percent for mid to large groups.

As employers deal with rapidly rising health costs and burdensome regulations, here comes the PPACA for employee satisfaction. It also causes many employers to brace for additional increases in their expenses, driving them to introduce CDHP along with HSA.

In the eyes of a CEO, businesses create jobs, innovate, manufacture and provide the services that drive economic growth. Yet lack of inertia along the frontier of health and performance improvement, continuous value enhancement, is restricting.

The severity of the healthcare cost and wellness crisis faced by state and local governments is beyond the pale. Governments and unions can do certain things to protect their coverage and efforts are being made to solve this pension crisis.

Hospitals not only treat patients but perform research, healing, breakthrough discoveries, community leadership, etc. These strengths are part of a broader effort to contain costs without compromising the quality of care of patients receive.

Increasing medical costs and healthcare reforms have insisted on improving the population health, quality, and coverage. The initiatives include ACO, Medicaid efforts, bundled payments, primary care transformation, and other five-star programs.

When you think about healthcare cost, you probably envision wellness programs like weight loss plans, exercise regimes. Poor health habits are very costly to us as individuals, and as a nation.

Poor health is not only costly for individuals, but it is also costly for the entire nation and its economy as well. Medical costs unnecessarily stem from poor diet, and eating the right foods will make healthcare more affordable for all.

Corporate wellness programs have been designed to foster employee wellness in businesses across the board. It is time to shift that focus to a more holistic and balanced view of today's employee concerns.

Depending on the workplace, anywhere from 30 to 80 percent of employees waste time dealing with personal financial matters. This translates to 12-20 hours a month of lost productivity and this averages 16 hours a month, or 10% of a 40-hour work week.

Mysteries of empowering employees to spend their money on purchasing healthcare is how can they do without a knowledge of that. Most Americans are not doing things that can help them get the care they need at the lowest possible cost.

The workplace wellness field experienced a growing awareness of the influence of organizational culture on employee health. It is not enough to implement a wellness or well-being program without also attending to the health-related influences.

Many employers offer health and productivity management programs designed to improve the health and well being of employees. Ideally, the results obtained from the HRA and the biometric screening will point individuals toward onsite or off-site fitness centers.

Healthcare costs have skyrocketed over the past several years and these traits are known by CEO and every company owners. Many Fortune 500 companies now report that the majority of their profits are being eaten up by these outrageous expenses.

Financial stress is often invisible but it hampers the productivity of your employee if they don't have financial freedom. It's employer's who cultivate a positive workplace atmosphere but the efforts are wasted if the employee has a financial crunch.

Most readers find it hard to believe that a vast majority of employers are costing themselves millions of dollars every year. Never mind that most of these medications have no science to support their use, and in many cases cause more harm than good.

A lot of Americans and the employers they work for are seeking creative ways to find inexpensive and quality healthcare. They have even figured out the solution, but that's not available doorstep, or you can say that's available but miles away.

As HR executives and wellness directors navigate the rapidly developing employer-sponsored wellness landscape, a plea from C-level. Many believe that the marketplace is too immature to deliver a clear ROI answer since wellness objectives still differ.

As the government regulation and market uncertainties are beaming up, employers are doing whatever they can to manage their costs. With the introduction of the Affordable Care Act, most employers have had to deal with the hefty increases in healthcare costs.

When the suggestion of a wellness program is presented to an employer- Where is the money going to come from? How about the employees' response when the suggestion of undertaking a healthier lifestyle is delivered at the workplace.

Despite numerous solutions such as wellness programs, consumer-driven healthcare, and payment reform, the outcome is underway. It is time for a fundamentally new strategy which will strengthen both the quality and the price of healthcare for employers.

The U.S. Department of Health shows that nearly 66% of Americans are overweight and almost 33 percent are obese. With technology advancements and sedentary lifestyle, more Americans are usn=ing healthcare benefits at unprecedented levels.

The primary goal of any wellness program is to create changes to unhealthy behaviors that will delay the chronic diseases. 80% of healthcare costs borne by employers are a result of health conditions that are preventable, really changing the wellness profile.

Diabetes is a disease caused by an increase in blood sugar with medical complications, which are costly and devastating. According to CDC, diabetics in the United States has grown to nearly 26 million, that's a 10% increase in the last 2 years.

Employers who are very satisfied with their benefits are almost four times more likely to be very satisfied with their jobs. Benefits are more expensive than ever and as the employee's cost share continues to rise, they are more aware of what they are getting for their dollars.

Unexpected expenses are a part and parcel of life and you never know which appliance or product will break down. All these unexpected billing adds up extra stress on the employee and puts them in a financial crunch especially for paycheck employees.

Employers are keeping their employees healthy, still, there are employers who will encourage employees to use stairs. Asking employees to hit the gym though not upgrading the equipment and putting the posters to eat healthily and green food for better health.

The skyrocketing healthcare costs and a sputtering economy-as if the cost of healthcare wasn't a concern in the years. At the same time staffs are being reduced, providing healthcare for the remaining workforce demands more expense and more sharing of the load.

Stress hits individuals and that affects the organizations in so many silent ways that neither of them is aware of the damage. Stress does not leave an immediate effect, which makes it much more challenging to identify and solve the root cause.

In this ever-changing world, there is an increase in stress and the consequences of stress minimizes productivity. Stress also affects concentration, self-esteem, anxiety, anger, change in behavior like sleep disturbance, irritability, tension headache etc.

The success of a wellness program is directly proportional to the level of engagement and participation of the employees. Regardless of which method is used, th eend goal is to create a culture of wellness.

According to the CTO of Todd Park, the two biggest healthcare trends in 2012 are data liberation and incentive reform. Fidelity Investments Benefits Consulting conducted a survey that found the total amount spent per employee on health and wellness.

The cost of employer-sponsored healthcare in the U.S. has more than doubled for employers and employees in the last 10 years. The main reasons is the growing proportion of the working population that are being treated for expensive and chronic conditions.

Perhaps we all know, losing weight has always been and probably will always be among the top 5 resolutions every new year. Year after year, getting out of debts is one of the utmost importance to many of the Americans.

Think of the situation- it's the first day of the week and the meeting today holds a great significance in decision making. If anyone develops an intense pain in chest or any sensitive organ or body parts, they fear the impact of pain on their career.