Smokers And The Obese: A Case Study

An employee can help reduce the cost of health cost by doing several things. There has been an outcry from organizations due to the rising number of competitors with high expenses catering for health benefits during employment periods and on retiring. The employee can be of great help by being participative in the programs set by their employers to benefit more from other advantages far from health costs (Kerzner, 2013). Some of the choices an employee may consider to help control health costs are by boosting consumerism, use technology to manage benefits, and indulge in fitness and health programs.

Employers are continuing to face rising health benefit costs and are constantly looking for alternatives to control these escalating costs. Health benefit premiums continue to increase at a double digit pace for employers and employees (Poor, Ross & Tollen, 2004). This escalation is putting environmental pressures on all impacted stakeholders. Companies and insurance providers are squeezing this industry to get a handle on cost while still providing an appropriate level of care. This cycle puts the patient front and center as the ultimate stakeholder who incurs changes in health benefits. This mandate of cost control, efficient operations and market share has facilitated a constant analysis of the dynamic health

The Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010 to make sure that most people had medical insurance. With this new healthcare system came the responsibility that individuals would have to take initiatives to try to stay or get healthy. The preventative care portion included in the Affordable Car Act is a big item and very important in health care reform and very positive for the American people. Wellness in the workplace has become a very important issue to help reduce companies medical cost, and to help employees get on track to know their numbers, get healthy, and have a positive healthy mental attitude. Many employees do not understand or know how to get healthy and live a healthy lifestyle. With the rising cost of healthcare relating to

The Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, with the intent of ensuring that most people in the United States have medical insurance. With this new healthcare system came the responsibility that individuals would have to take initiatives in an effort to stay healthy or at the least, increase their level of activity and health awareness, making them more responsible for their own wellness. The preventative care portion included in the Affordable Care Act is one of the fundamental items of the law and is a particularly meaningful, very positive attribute in health care reform for the American people. Wellness in the workplace has become an essential issue to help reduce companies’ medical cost, and to help employees get on track to know their numbers, get healthy, and have a positive healthy mental attitude. Many employees do not understand or know how to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle. With the rising cost of healthcare, especially relating to people not taking care of their bodies, wellness in the workplace has become even more critical. Author Lori Breiner (2007) “believes wellness in the workplace has economic benefits for organizations, because if workers are healthy, they miss less time from work.” Breiner’s theory would suggest that better health increases productivity and profits in the workplace.

This article analyzes how workplace health promotion programs aids in prevention strategies. Berry and Mirabito share how critical it is to emphasize whole-person wellness rather than focusing solely on physical health. Including

Foremost, the healthier a society is, the more productive employees are, which boosts revenue. When an employee’s health is in question, an employer may actually lose 77 percent of productivity, making the loss greater than that of health care expenses. These numbers go up with the combination of lack of exercise, 96 percent loss, and unhealthy eating habits, 93 percent loss, said a study from Brigham Young University, according to an article in a 2012 Education Letter. The study included “those who did not believe their workplace environment would support them in becoming physically and emotionally healthier were more likely to

One of the advantages of enhancing cost control measures is that members are encouraged to change lifestyle habits that are detrimental to their health. For example, by encouraging members to quit smoking, engage in regular

The costs of providing health coverage for employees are rising at such a high rate that many companies have begun asking employees to pay a greater share of the cost, or eliminate coverage entirely. Employers are raising the costs or eliminating

Physicians are not the only one that is not relying on government funds to help with preventive measures. Large corporations are equally involved in wellness (Aldana, 2005). Many corporations are offering incentives to their employees. For example, Blue Cross Blue Shield offers wellness benefits to their employees that maintain a healthy lifestyle to include not smoking, weight management, hypertension and high cholesterol management. This company has even gone as far as to offer financial incentives offset the costs for health insurance. The employees have access to a gym that resembles at a rate of approximately $10 per month. The employees have access to a personal trainer to help them with their weight management. BCBS have a health care team which visits the site and gives blood tests to determine their cholesterol level, hypertension, and smoking. This incentive allows employees to be seen for free and receive the proper treatment for free. To add more to this plan, the company gives the employee that meet the requirements for “a healthy lifestyle”, the gives the employee money titled “Wellness” each pay period. This is incentive enough to some people to continue to live a healthy lifestyle.

The new affordable healthcare reform has been delayed until 2015/2016. This mandate requires employers with 50 or more full time employees to provide health insurance or pay a per month "Employer Shared Responsibility Payment" on their federal tax return (Pyne, 2013). This has employers concerned about continued increases in healthcare cost. This cost increase provides an incentive to create new innovative solutions toward healthcare services. One solution that has been gaining traction is the use of preventive care. Preventive care involves a healthy lifestyle from nutrition, exercise and frequent visit to healthcare facilities for health monitoring. Monitoring provides the means to identify issues early so that less costly health services will be required to resolve.

Summary SITUATION ANALYSIS As one of the leaders in the marketplace, and the nation’s third largest non-profit, secular health care system, North Shore-LIJ Health System is efficient in taking care of it’s employees. The overwhelming success of the 2010, “It’s About Choices Campaign,” leaves the North ShoreLIJ Health System with the an approval rating that exceeds all expectations. The organization will continue to pay on average 87% of the cost for employee benefits in 2011, however the health-care plans will differ from previous years. In an effort to increase the overall lifestyle and wellness of North Shore-LIJ employees, the

In summary, the US obesity epidemic is exactly that, a chronic disease that has been ignored for so long that it is now at epidemic levels and growing exponentially. This national problem has been allowed to continue as a result of how private healthcare companies have historically performed their internal economic analyses done as part of their normal course of business. In the past, private healthcare has taken a per unit breakeven analysis, and determined (based solely on the financial impacts to their own company) that it was better to deny coverage for gastric surgery, and “promote” moving obese policy holders off the private healthcare company’s coverage. And once obese patients are removed from insurance coverage, private

Finally, by testing a preventative health care strategy would prove to be beneficial in the long term basis, generally simply due to the need for the public to promote the benefits of feeling fit and being healthy. “The Gale Group (2001) reports as a preventative measure for good health, many organizations or institutions have designed programs that inform the public or specific persons with specific problems about information that will benefit that person or persons. Preventative measures are for diabetes, heart problems, cancer, and many other focused subjects. According to the American Dietetic Association, current interest in health promotion in the United States involves disease prevention and the problem of obesity. Health promotion is

This scenario is the case that many companies face as they can have both an older workforce as well as a younger workforce that are generally healthy in comparison to their older colleagues who maybe battling an onset of diseases as they age. Employers and the government are obligated to ensure that individuals have health insurance for both their healthy and sickly employees. Those that are contending with serious diseases like diabetes are entitled to health insurance coverage in order to prevent employees from having to struggle with high medical costs as the result of being diagnosed with a chronic disease. With the enactment of the Affordable Care Act employers are now required to provide their employees with health benefits, employers

Wellness in the workplace needs to be taken seriously by all employers, and employees. There has been evidence that making sure employees eat healthier leads to lower call out rates and more savings on health plans. In an article in Employee Benefits magazine it states that “Wellness management does not need to be complicated, or costly. A few simple steps could help to mitigate long-term problems, such as introducing early intervention activities that red flag cases identified via an absence reporting mechanism, the proactive management of musculo-skeletal conditions and stress, introducing a smoking cessation program or running regular health wellbeing days. “Workplace wellness as a concept has been used extensively in recent years by management in business and industry, health professionals, fitness experts, and others. This is a policy that should be implanted in all jobs. Wellness may not