Those of you who have read my previous blog items on obesity know that this trend in our society worries me. There are two children’s hospitals in Atlanta that merged many years ago, and they recently started an organization called Strong4Life to combat childhood obesity.
I lived in Atlanta for many years and can attest, both anecdotally and by the numbers, that overall health is worse there than in Boston. According to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the parent of the two hospitals, Georgia has the second highest rate of childhood obesity in the US with almost 1 million children and teenagers considered obese. News reports quote various representatives talking about how they are treating kids with conditions unheard of 10-20 years ago, such as joint replacement needs and hypertension, due to obesity. They’ve tried education and decided to try something more “blunt” after their own studies found that 75% of parents with obese children did not think they had a problem. The new approach lead to Read more…
When I was in my twenties and early-30′s and living in Atlanta, there was this great, multi-day music festival in the heart of the city called the Midtown Music Festival. One year, I had the privilege of seeing James Brown live (the only time I’ve seen him perform live). I’ve recently been thinking of his song, “Get Up Offa That Thing” when I read about the increasing link of a sedentary lifestyle with health issues. Not that he was singing about sitting too much.
Part of the problem with American’s health today is we are too sedentary. Many of us are now “knowledge workers” meaning we sit in an office or cubicle for most of the day, on a computer (how ironic is it that is what I’m doing right now?) or in meetings. Then for most of us, we sit in our car and drive home. Once there, we are active for a little while (make dinner, walk the dog, do some cleaning), but then most of us proceed to the sofa or home office chair and sit. When it’s time, we go to bed. The next morning, we get up, move around some, then it’s back in the car to repeat, 5 days a week. As I’ve said before, our society has a massive obesity and overweight problem, and weight is an easy equation: Read more…
In early November the Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA) announced that it would not hire tobacco users beginning in January of 2011. This announcement has gotten a lot of attention locally and has created a fire storm of controversy, with equal measures of supporters and detractors. Although this practice isn’t commonplace it isn’t entirely new either. A number of employers have adopted so-called ‘lifestyle bans’ over the last few years. Most have cited concern over rising health care costs, a commitment to health and wellness initiatives, or both. In response, over half of our states have adopted laws against the practice of employers making hiring decisions based on the applicant’s off duty activities. Currently, Massachusetts doesn’t have any specific bans against employers implementing lifestyle statutes as part of its hiring practice.
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As consultants and advocates for our clients, we want our clients to have a broader set of pro-active tools to reduce the cost of health insurance. One of those tools that still is mostly untapped is employer-sponsored Wellness initiatives at the worksite. Wellness is hardly a new concept. Many researchers have reported on the success of Wellness programs but they have been sparsely implemented. One of the biggest problems with Wellness programs is that only some of the gains in health care expense control are achieved in the near term. Many of the gains are not achieved until later in life as a result of decreases in the incidence of cancer, heart disease and diabetes. And given that the average employee changes jobs every seven years or so, many employers feel that the benefits are passed on to future employers. hat poses a problem. How do you incent businesses to pay for Wellness programs when they may not get many of the benefits? Read more…
Wellness programs in the workplace are designed to educate and assist employees to live healthier lives. But there is no denying that the overall health of employees can certainly help to reduce medical costs. Did you know that 15% of employees accrue 78% of medical expenses, and that 75% of health care costs are directly related to lifestyle and are preventable? As we enter the next phase of wellness, we find that many human resources professionals looking for new ways to proactively control their medical costs. We hosted a discussion this week with Interactive Health Solution (IHS), a partner firm that provides health awareness and preventive care programs that can help reduce the severity of claims, and ultimately allows the workforce to be more productive. Read more…
Those of you who have read my previous blog items on obesity know that this trend in our society worries me. There are two children’s hospitals in Atlanta that merged many years ago, and they recently started an organization called Strong4Life to combat childhood obesity.
