An increasing number of employers are offering consumer directed health plans (CDHPs), but enrollment remains low, according to a survey from the National Business Group on Health (NBGH) and Watson Wyatt. A separate study finds that people who do enroll are motivated not only by lower premiums, but also by a number of other features found in CDHPs.
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A study profiled in the November 2006 edition of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine shows that obese workers' short-term disability leave rates were 76 percent higher than their thinner colleagues. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh led by Vincent Arena, Ph.D., looked at the correlation between body-mass index (BMI) and short-term disability leave in a population of white-collar workers. Body-mass index is the measure of the relative percentages of fat and muscle mass and is used by fitness experts to gauge whether or not a person is overweight.
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Employers spend a lot of money on the health plans they offer employees, and as a consequence want to purchase health benefits—and all employee benefits, for that matter—that their workers will appreciate. According to a survey from Deloitte Consulting and the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, when asked to rank the criteria used in selecting a health plan, employers ranked cost, network access and employee satisfaction as the three primary drivers of that decision. A separate survey from Watson Wyatt Worldwide asked benefits managers about their desired outcomes from their health plan vendors. On a scale of “1” through “5” where “5” indicated a top priority rating, employee satisfaction scored the highest priority at 4.2, followed by low cost at 3.7.
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With medical costs on the rise, employers need to consider all possible ways to help employees lower their health care spending. Many of the conditions that give rise to health care spending are preventable, and can be managed—or avoided altogether—with behavioral or lifestyle changes. Workplace wellness programs can provide the tools for employees to adopt the changes that can improve their health and lower their health care spending.
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