The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act made into law what health plans and employers already know - that Health & Wellness programs can help achieve significant medical cost savings if implemented effectively. Some studies even show a 4:1 ROI on healthcare and productivity costs for every dollar spent on prevention. But to generate real savings, you need employee participation over the long haul - not an easy task - but here are four common themes from companies with successful Health & Wellness programs....
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Most summaries of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) don't include anything about Healthcare IT, but that's not to say that HIT isn't included at all. Some components of the bill, such as provider quality reporting, inherently reference the use of HIT to achieve their results. Other parts of the legislation, on the other hand, leverage and rely on IT principles and positions directly....
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Roughly 86 cents of every dollar spent on health care goes directly to medical services. These services can include costs for outpatient or inpatient services, physician visits, or the cost for prescription drugs. Yet, when most health plans engage in efforts to reduce costs, they tend to focus on the "other 14 cents" typically called administrative costs...
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It has been estimated that 3 out of 4 people report that they do not take their medications as directed. Adherence is not a new problem, but a continuing contribution to accelerating healthcare costs....
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In an innovative effort to improve the health of its community, Albert Lea, Minn became the first American town to sign on to the AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project funded by United Health Foundation....
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In an initiative to "make health fun," the application of gaming theory and health e-games, represent a promising potential for many benefits, including improving physical, cognitive and emotional fitness and motivating behavior change....
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In its latest issue, the American Journal of Health Promotion published an interesting study regarding incentives and corporate wellness promotion....
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It couldn't escape notice that the results from the 2010 America's Health Ranking indicate that small successes in managing the health of our population continue to be offset by unhealthy behaviors, including epidemic levels of obesity with the prevalence doubling in the last 19 years and a persistency of risky behavior....
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