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The fields of law enforcement and corrections continue to see elevated levels of stress among the men and women who day in and day out continue to answer the call. [...]

Employers have a vital role to play in helping the NHS deliver plans that it hopes will prevent around 85,000 premature deaths a year. In itshttps://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/nhs-long-term-plan.pdf , published earlier this [...]

Work-related stress, depression or anxiety accounts for a staggering 40% of work-related ill-health and 49% of working days lost, before we even get to the impact of stressful modern lives [...]

Spring is in the air and lures are in the ... mail. For high school juniors, the lures come from colleges. For Ohio employers, they come from Managed Care Oiganizations [...]

Companies must deal with benefit-related issues and focus on making the workforce more productive and healthier amid the planned health reform. Effective health initiatives should include analysis of data, segmentation, and targeting. The advantages of investing in health and wellness programs are discussed.

A value-based design will help in bringing behavior change that is vital to improving health and wellness. This approach features three levers, which are individual competency, cost-efficient care delivery choices, and chronic care management in accordance to evidence-based guidelines. The advantages of behavioral health are discussed.

It is believed that benefits professionals can develop health benefit programs that provide different services, assuring expatriates that care will be available. Companies often represent a long-term corporate investment in building skills and furthering succession planning when they post employees in foreign countries.

Workplace depression is a growing concern as it is expected that about 882,000 British Columbians will experience mental disorder in 2008. The government is addressing the concern with the Canadian Mental Health Commission for improving employee health monitoring. Other efforts in addressing workplace depression are discussed.

The current wide variety of occupational health training courses “reduces clarity for employers and potential students”, a report from the National School of Occupational Health and Health Education England has [...]

LONDON UNDERGROUND HAS RUN health promotion initiatives for many years but until recently, work in this area has been rather stop/start. Initiatives have been seen as being over and above [...]

As related below, one large health and welfare plan learned the importance of a good communications strategy the hard way. This article offers the basics of a communication strategy and tips for 'getting the job done.' An effective communication program can increase participant and trustee satisfaction, reduce staff workload and help control costs to focus on the organization's core mission.

The smaller employers--those with 50 to 250 employees--seem to be hit the hardest with high health care costs. Some are even dropping health care coverage entirely. Considering the pressure to draw and retain talent and that health coverage is one of the most important employee benefits, what can employers, especially small ones, do? The key is to avoid the ten most common mistakes employers make when selecting a health care plan, such as delay, inertia, fear of risk, refusal to change and failure to listen to employees. Enlist the help of the health plan's representatives in the crucial plan component of educating your employees.

Donna De Andrea, benefits specialist at Sherman Oaks Hospital in Sherman Oaks, Calif., had grown used to fielding a high volume of questions from employees about health-plan billing and claims. [...]

Numerous components, which make up a comprehensive workforce health management program, are examined. Such an integrated program is regarded as an organized and practical procedure, which matches the health-care requirements of the workforce with the employer's business strategy.

The importance of managing employee health and productivity in an organizational view, which addresses the most expensive drivers in the health care costs with prevention, education and employee responsibility as key areas is discussed.

The methods for employees to implement an integrated health risk management (IHRM) program to significantly lower health care costs to a degree unattainable through traditional cost control strategies, while raising the workers' productivity and well being at the same time.

Preventing work-related stress and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) is not simply about providing occupational health services or performing generic risk assessments. Based on the research findings of a three-year HSE-funded study [...]

Objective. To determine whether health maintenance organizations (HMOs) attract enrollees who use relatively few medical resources and whether a simple risk adjustment system could mitigate or eliminate the inefficiency associated with risk selection. Data Sources. The first and second rounds of the Community Tracking Study Household Survey (CTSHS), a national panel data set of households in 60 different markets in the United States. Study Design. We use regression analysis to examine medical expenditures in the first round of the survey between enrollees who switched plan types (i.e., from a non-HMO plan to an HMO plan, or vice versa) between the first and second rounds of the survey versus enrollees who remained in their original plan. The dependent variable is an enrollee's medical resource use, measured in dollars, and the independent variables include gender, age, self-reported health stares, and other demographic variables. Data Collection Methods. We restrict our analysis to the 6,235 non-elderly persons who were surveyed in both rounds of the CTSHS, received health insurance from their employer or the employer of a household member in both years of the survey, and were offered a choice of an HMO and a non HMO plan in both years. Principal Findings. We find that people who switched from a non-HMO to an HMO plan used 11 percent fewer medical services in the period prior to switching than people who remained in a non-HMO plan, and that this relatively low use persisted once they enrolled in an HMO. Furthermore, people who switched from an HMO to a non-HMO plan used 18 percent more medical services in the period prior to switching than those who remained in an HMO plan. Conclusions. HMOs are experiencing favorable risk selection and would most likely continue to do so even if employers adjusted health plan payments based on enrollees' gender and age because the selection is based on enrollee characteristics that are difficult to observe, such as preferences for medical care and health stares. Key Words. Risk selection, adverse selection, risk adjustment, Managed care health plans currently cover about 90 percent of the people who receive employer-sponsored health insurance. The extent to which managed care plans disproportionately enroll low-risk relative to high-risk [...]

The proliferation of health care consumer reports (also known as 'consumer guides,' 'report cards,' and 'performance reports') designed to assist consumers in making more informed health care decisions makes it [...]

When a doctor arrives to attend some patient of the working class . . . let him condescend to sit down. . .if not on a gilded chair. . . [...]

TERRY THOMASON and SILVANA POZZEBON (*) The authors examine workplace health and safety practices and workers' compensation claim management at some 450 Quebec firms in 1995. An analysis controlling for [...]

This article examines how employers can introduce medical nutrition therapy benefits to promote the health of employees and cut the costs associated with health care. Research demonstrates substantial cost savings for companies that provide employees with dietitian and nutritional therapy support services.

A more coordinated and value-driven health program should be offered by United Kingdom employers to be more responsive to the needs of their employees. In this way, all aspects of employee health will be covered while providing employers a way to measure employee performance. Any approach that would be formulated must be also capable of demonstrating bottom-line improvement and of coordinating and maximizing the use of private- and public-sector health care.

Companies must underscore the adoption of effective health care benefit design to address problems associated with health insurance cost and coverage. Statistics show that in 1998, medical cost inflation considerably increased by 6.1%, and is expected to rise by as much as 7%-10% by the end of 1999. For firms to be able to cope with the skyrocketing rate of medical cost, they must adopt a design that centers prescription drug coverage, plan cost reduction, catastrophic protection and managed care.

The latest twist in managed care? Hospitals, doctors and employers team up to elbow out HMOs and insurers. After small talk about family and sports, the conversation would always take [...]

Do you hear 'carpal tunnel' and think mostly of data entry, clerks? The condition also is common among those who work in retail and on assembly lines. Do you hear [...]