Wisdom teeth
Employee Benefit News recently picked the brains of executives at leading dental benefits providers and dental benefits organizations to ask them about what trends they saw emerging in dental benefits over the next several years, and the tips they'd offer to employers to make sure their dental benefits matched those trends.
The recession is affecting all types of benefits - even the once recession-proof dental - so as you might expect, the rise of voluntary offerings and tips for cost-cutting were front of mind. Take their comments under consideration as you plan your strategy for this fall's open enrollment.
To read more click on
Tips.
Paying Employees To Lose Weight
Employers are upping the ante to their wellness programs as the average cash incentive has increased from $204 in 2008 to $329 in 2009, finds a recent study on incentives in corporate wellness programs.
To read more click on
Employee Incentives.
Poll Shows Benefits Trump Cash
There’s no disputing that cash is king, especially in these turbulent times, but a new national online survey of 3,000 working Americans suggests that they value their employee benefits even more than greenbacks.
To read more click on
Benefits.
ROI Even More Important Than BMI
Every company, regardless of size or industry, is keen to demonstrate the effectiveness of their investments, especially during times of diminishing returns and shrinking profit margins. Wellness initiatives and workplace health promotion programs are no exception.
Click on
ROI for more on this topic.
Support For Taxing Health Benefits Slips
That’s the word from Capitol Hill. D.C.'s Examiner reports that the reason taxing employer-sponsored health benefits is losing traction in the debate is because, wait for it, Americans don’t like it.
Click on
Taxing Health Benefits to read more.
5 Reasons You’re Always Starving
You’re driving along on your way to work, to the gym, or to pick up the kids and—bam—it hits you—that overwhelming gnawing hunger. The next thing you know, you’re pulling into a drive through and ordering up a storm.
Click on
starving to reading more.
Wellness: Cost Saver Or Productivity Booster?
It seems the employee benefits industry just can’t decide whether corporate health improvement programs are meant to save a company money or make more of it.While 40% of responding benefit professionals (a mixture of benefit advisers, employer-based benefit professionals as well as carrier and vendor-based benefits experts) said the goal was to save costs, nearly as many -- 38% -- said the goal was better worker productivity.
See
Cost Saver for more information.
Good Health at Any Age
Most of us know that being overweight can increase certain health risks for people of all ages. According to the Surgeon General, for people of all ages, extra pounds could mean increased risk for heart disease (the biggest killer of both men and women), certain types of cancer, Type 2 diabetes, stroke and more. But someone trying to lose weight at age 50 has different needs than a 30 year old trying to do the same. Fortunately, there are age-specific steps everyone can take to help them stay healthy and reach their weight-loss goals.
Click on
Good Health for more information.
Parsing the Health Reform Arguments
The health-care debate continues. We have now heard from nearly all the politicians, experts and interested parties: doctors, drug makers, hospitals, insurance companies, even constitutional lawyers (though not, significantly, from trial lawyers, who know full well "change" is not coming to their practices). Here is how one humble economist sees some of the main arguments, which I have paraphrased below:
Click on
Reform Arguments.
