Health Care Costs Top Employer Concerns
American employers still see escalating health care costs as a key priority, according to a new study from Tennessee-based Unum, an insurance provider, and Connecticut-based LIMRA International, an insurance marketing group.
For instance, 88% of employers cited controlling health care costs as more important than increasing employee productivity and recruiting talent. As a result, employees need to be more aware of their benefits offering and bearing responsibility for their own health and financial well-being.
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Controlling Cost.
Companies Find Employee Wellness Programs Pay Off
BROOKFIELD, Wis. - Kelli Kolsrud walks the walk. A contributor to a 500-page research report on wellness programs, Kolsrud can personally attest to the benefits of being well.
"I'm really, really glad that we can do this," Kolsrud said during lunchtime laps around the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, where she's a senior information specialist.
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Wellness Program.
Pricing Pills By The Results
Drug companies like to say that their most expensive products are fully worth their breathtaking prices. Now one company is putting its money where its mouth is — by offering a money-back guarantee.
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New York Times.
Firm Basing Deductibles On Health Tests Sees Costs Fall
Would $2,000 a year be enough to entice workers to live a healthier lifestyle — and would efforts to get them to do so result in slower health insurance cost increases in future years?
Those are just some of the questions surrounding a new type of insurance, but answers won't be in for a while.
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USA Today for more information.
Shift In Health-Cost Focus Is Said To Show Promise
By coordinating care and keeping their patients out of the hospital, doctors can help reduce overall health care spending, Medicare officials said yesterday in announcing the results of an experiment that allowed doctors to share in the cost savings.
The experiment, which started in April 2005 and is to continue through April 2008, is an attempt by Medicare to rethink the way it reimburses doctors. The goal is to pay them for the quality of the care they deliver, rather than on how many tests and procedures they perform.
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Health-Cost.
Some Chronically Ill Adults Wait for Medicare
When uninsured adults with common chronic illnesses became eligible for Medicare, they saw doctors and were hospitalized more often and reported greater medical expenses than people who had had insurance. And their increased use of medical services continued at least until at least age 72, researchers are reporting today.
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Medicare.
As Co-Pay Rises, Prescription Use Drops
When patients pay more for prescription medicine, they use it less, according to a new study. Researchers say this may spur more serious illnesses over time.
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prescriptions for more information.
For Some Workers, Spiritual Healing Part Of The Benefits Package
STAUNTON, Va. -- A growing workplace ministry is providing spiritual support to workers at factories, hospitals, and police and fire stations. Industrial and Commercial Ministries trains hundreds of lay and professional ministers who spend their days traveling to corporations and listening to employees' needs.
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Benefits Package.
Businesses Help Workers to Lose Weight
CHICAGO -- A burgeoning industry of wellness advisers, counselors and consultants is booming as corporate America tries to increase productivity and control insurance costs by helping its employees get healthy and shed pounds.
The change is fueled by well-meaning, cost-conscious executives who are looking for ways to trim bottom lines along with waist lines.
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Washington Post.
