Search results matching tags 'Wellness Programs' and 'My Commentaries'

Why Games Will Take Over Our Lives – I Agree It Could As Sometimes Is The“Only” Item That Motivates Any Kind of a Learning Process – Entertain Me or Otherwise Don’t Bother

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 20:49:00 GMT

Healthcare is fair game for this and in this interview from CNN, a toothbrush is used as an example. With devices, such as the IPhone, we see some of this with going on line to compare your work out figures and other items against others on the web or with friends. This is also a legal outlet of sorts for promoting such software for other data reporting type services with the hopes that if an individuals gets acquainted with processes through playing games, there might be some additional hope for success when the game becomes secondary and collecting data about your health takes top priority.

Have You Been Suckered In by FaceBook to Play Games To Support Employer and Insurance Company Reform Initiatives?

We have seen it on Facebook too where playing a game gets contributions send to place you never even thought of or to companies you may not want to send contributions, but it’s all part of the game. We have a scale that already connects and you can use it for your personal health records or you can play the game and compete with others on BMI, etc.

Withings WiFi Connected Body Scale Integrates with Microsoft HealthVault To Use WiFi to Record Your Weight

A couple other items mentioned in here is that a “game” can be won, but all areas of life are not like that, so we get some immediate gratification along the line.

Just in the news today is a story about the VA using video games to rehabilitate veterans with brain injuries. This application I completely understand why too. If you notice in almost all the promotional material for many devices, they want the perception to be “fun” and have it be seen as a game of sorts. Again, there’s nothing wrong with this, but be prepared when the real data collecting and who has access kicks in, it’s all there either now or later. The pill bottle that reminds you to take medications is a good thing for what it does for consumers for compliance, but it also adds you medication information to a data base where your information is bought and sold and creates profits for companies in healthcare who mine and use that data.

The Colbert Report Takes On Vitality GlowCaps (Video) – Check Out the Privacy Issues Here As Medication Data is Created That Can Be Sold To Health Insurance Companies For Use With Underwriting Algorithms

Walk N Play is a free iPhone application that will let you compare notes and play a game with the use of the accelerometer, so again when a data gathering program is initiated and perhaps there are savings for an individual through biometric monitoring of an employer to give discounts on employer health insurance rates, it is now more than the game, but that’s how it started. Computational Physiology Lab is the name of the company supplying the game, notice the name?

Walk n Play iPhone Application – Tracks Every Move You Make and Creates A Report

There’s some great psychologists walking around that have written some interesting games to get people interested I do have to say. If we have a society that revolves around entertainment, well games it is to solicit that mentality to learn I guess.

The Health Coach/Insurance Company – Employer plan to uses devices and phones for employees to prove their physical activity

This device, Fitbit has a game too with a lot of other disclosures you may want to read about too. See it states to compare with the “broader community”, i.e. a game.

Fitbit Wireless Device Monitors your Daily Activity and Movements Released

Organizations approved by Fitbit that conduct or consume research into health and wellness

Users of the Service for purposes of comparison of their personal health and wellness situation relative to the broader community.

Advertisers and other third parties for their marketing and promotional purposes, such as the number of users who clicked on a particular Fitbit Offer;

It does make one wonder if this is the direction the world is going with “gaming” algorithms designed to engage individuals with an idea that can be “fun” instead of using the word “learn”. I know I certainly have a difficult time in just suggesting to individuals to take maybe 10-15 minutes a day to read and learn something, in other words pull yourself away from gaming, watching TV and do this. I get looks like you cant’ believe and many who think they don’t need to read and that part is scary as those are the ones who don’t understand and get angry at some point and blame all those that do read for the basis of their problems. Yeah, that’s everywhere and not just healthcare.

If' I can have fun and win a game I guess folks are into it, if one has to read, focus and learn, well that is not as much fun, but again pay attention to how the games work and when they are somewhat of a front for data collecting and read the fine print as most of them will tell you, we are collecting your data, but have fun playing the game. BD

CNN) -- If you think an electric toothbrush is high-tech, wait until you hear about the Internet-enabled version.

Jesse Schell, a game designer and Carnegie Mellon University professor, says toothbrushes will be hooked-up with Wi-Fi Internet connections within five years.

The point? If the entire Internet knows how often you brush your teeth and for how long, there's an incentive to brush more often.

Toothbrush makers could offer rewards for frequent brushers, too. Say you brush your teeth twice each day for three months. A company like Crest or Procter & Gamble could reward you with coupons for more toothbrushes, since your well-used bristles would probably be frayed by then.

In fact, Oral-B is like halfway there. They already have a toothbrush that senses when you're brushing your teeth. And every 30 seconds, it beeps, meaning it's time now to change to a different corner of your mouth. So you do the four quadrants of your mouth, and when you've done all four, then it does a little special beep, and a happy face appears. And you don't get the happy face, you get a sad face, if you don't finishing brushing your teeth properly.

One of the main things that's appealing about games is that you know a game can be won. It's an unusual game that's impossible to win.

In real life, we have these problems, and the problems are hairy, and they're messy. You look at the problems that you face in your job or in your relationship or in your family, and it's like there's no clear winning, and there's no clear losing. Whereas, in a game, things are crisp and clear.

The game presents you with challenges that can be met, and then it congratulates you on your successes at those challenges. It's a thing we don't get everyday in life.

Why games will take over our lives - CNN.com

Technorati Tags: Health Insurance, Healthcare, Wellness Programs, fitness monitoring, Big Brother, premiums, incentives, employer insurance, intrusive technology, weight Loss, Walk N Play, iPhone, medical devices, meaningful use, games

WellPoint enters wellness program partnership With Red Brick – Behavior Based Health Insurance

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:11:00 GMT

We live in the world of integrated software and employee participation is an option with a device such as an iPhone to monitor activity, along with being connected to a Wellness Coach that could send you emails and text messages, some could be a nice warning telling you that you are not moving enough today, in other words, you are not exhibiting enough physician activity today. There are devices that one can wear that does this wireless reporting and you can read in the related reading below about a couple, who specifically target insurance and risk management companies to promote their sales, as shown on their websites.

If you want to check it out and have an iPhone, you can download this program and see how it works. The iPhone has a built in accelerometer to sense motion that makes this possible. This software is free but could easily be built upon for use in a proprietary system.

Walk n Play iPhone Application – Tracks Every Move You Make and Creates A Report

“Redbrick’s methods for tracking employees’ commitment to these health plans are surprisingly detailed (though they may smack a bit of Big Brother). For example, it offers an iPhone application that records progress on a person’s walking exercises and beams the data back to Redbrick’s system. Pedometers and watches that do the same are also in the works, VentureWire reports. This might sound a tad invasive, but the company says that employers have the choice whether or not to make employees prove that they are following their custom health maps.”

Target Corporation Partners with Red Brick Wellness Program

From prior articles it states the use of devices are optional, but with the use of a device that is your human audit trail that beams information back to server another carrot dangled to give cheaper rates to employees that participate and if so, at what level, does the monitoring take place only during working hours or is this a 24/7 situation? Something to give some thought to if you still value a level of privacy.

Devices and the data they report are getting smarter and this is an area where one needs to know exactly where the data goes and how and when it will be evaluated, and if it could be used against you should a few days of insufficient activity enter into a situation where a medical claim is involved. For this reason alone, I believe that a personal health record should be the focus point to gather the information, and thus should a patient decide to share the information, they are in control and could shut it off if desired by stopping the sharing process. I could easily see where employees could possibly offered big discounts too for using an iPhone with participation with electronic proof that you are following the road map set forth by a coach.

Once again it’s in the algorithms that are created to collect and report data and will it evolve to the point of having to carry a device to have insurance? As costs go up, so do the requirements for additional data, we are seeing that now and the legal cases in some areas surrounding the use of some of the algorithms used to calculate payments for out of network charges.

Are we ever going to have some Algorithmic Centric laws to protect privacy? The other day I posted about the human hedge funds being proposed on Wall Street, where investors take part in life insurance policies and stand to lose money if the participating group ends up living too long. After reading such, I have a very strong distrust as do most who have read that article I would guess. Again as data aggregation continues and more information is made available, would some of this be intertwined at some point? These are questions, and good ones, as it is possible today, but again laws are needed to protect “personal electronic privacy” that are algorithmic centric and spell out the exact process, and we don’t have any such laws now as this is an emerging technology just getting started.

Personal Electronic Privacy should be addressed at some point, just as other privacy issues have, except it’s a bit more complicated and needs algorithmic centric laws and rules in order to protect citizens. BD

WellPoint Inc., the parent of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Wisconsin, said it has entered a partnership with health and wellness company RedBrick Health to create a new, behavior-based wellness and incentive program for WellPoint's affiliated health plans' large employers and health plan customers.

Minneapolis-based RedBrick contracts with employers to provide workers’ health assessment and screening tools, health coaching programs over the telephone and Internet, and other health and wellness services. Workers get financial awards for participating, and employers are able to reduce health insurance costs.

WellPoint enters wellness program partnership - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

Related Reading:

The Health Coach/Insurance Company – Employer plan to uses devices and phones for employees to prove their physical activity

The Muve Gruve Device Measures your Inactivity – Intrusive Technology with a Human Audit Trail?

The Human Audit Trail to automatically track your fitness and sleep and a few other things…

If You Think The “So Called Death Panels” are Something To Worry About – Read This and Get Educated

Goldman Stolen Code – Has Algorithmic Fraud Become A Business Model in HealthCare Too?

Health Care Insurers Suggest Algorithms and Business Intelligence solutions to provide health insurance solution

Technorati Tags: Health Insurance,Healthcare,Wellness Programs,fitness monitoring,Big Brother,premiums,incentives,employer insurance,intrusive technology,weight Loss,iPhone,Blue Cross,Red Brick,Privacy

Obama Calls On Bloggers To Keep Health Care Pressure On Congress and Help Stamp out Magpie Healthcare, We Need Reform

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:54:00 GMT

I am doing my part here as are many other bloggers. If we don’t act now and give some competition to the health insurance industry, their power and rationing will continue to grow…and the sad thing is that most of Congress has not a clue on what real healthcare is about, they certainly didn’t have a very good showing in the Senate in January as none on the video they provided on the internet shows not one knowing what a personal health record is. We have way too many “non smart” people in Congress that still live in the 70s, after what has been posted today we clearly are looking at a case of Congressional Magpie Healthcare.

Listen to the Call here….

If you haven’t looked at this side of the coin, read up here at the link below, good healthcare is not the focus, it is all money just like Wall Street and all about those who use software intelligence to make even more money. BD

Goldman Sachs – Healthcare Reform Bets, Hedges, and Analysis, Not About Healthcare But All About Money

In a reflection of a legislative strategy that has left no stone unturned, President Barack Obama on Monday called on like-minded bloggers to help his administration keep the heat on lawmakers to pass health care reform.

"It is important just to keep the pressure on members of Congress because what happens is there is a default position of inertia here in Washington," the president said during an invitation-only conference call. "And pushing against that, making sure that people feel that the desperation that ordinary families are feeling all across the country, every single day, when they are worrying about whether they can pay their premiums or not... People have to feel that in a visceral way. And you guys can help deliver that better than just about anybody."

"I know the blogs are best at debunking myths that can slip through a lot of the traditional media outlets," he said. "And that is why you are going to play such an important role in our success in the weeks to come."

Obama Calls On Bloggers To Keep Health Care Pressure On Congress (AUDIO)

Technorati Tags: Obama,healthcare reform,bloggers,health insurance,Congress,Magpie Healthcare,Wellness programs,goldman Sachs

Congress Plans Incentives for Healthy Habits ,Wellness Programs, and Devices? How Potentially Intrusive and Disruptive Will It Get to Save Money?

Anonymous — Sun, 10 May 2009 18:47:00 GMT

This is what I call a very “loaded” commentary and transparent view of what we are dealing with today. With Congress looking at incentives with insurance companies and employers, could they live within these realms themselves? This is the danger zone where those, who are not full acquainted with technology methodologies miss the boat and are perhaps unaware of what is happening in the “real world”.

Before passing laws it is only my small suggestion that perhaps members of Congress perhaps think about trying to live their lives under these constraints and still function as a human with some quality of life, could it be done? This is what’s happening on the back side and the entire make up of employer health insurance plans today, not just the fine print, reality of what is being practiced and there are no laws or constraints here, so it’s open game. We have the privacy advocates, thank goodness who do their best, but again does anyone listen?

Without technology knowledge and a full comprehensive understanding of risk management, nobody is at the controls. I like and use technology as much as the next person if not more so, but in doing so, this also gives me the opportunity to see how it is and will be mismanaged, and all that is out there. It is better to educate and have voluntary participation rather than the big brother approaches we are seeing today as everyone is fighting for the dollar. Healthcare suffers and levels of anxiety and anger rise. We see it every day, but will be educate ourselves and acknowledge that it exists? That is the million dollar question.

The devices will come, like it or not as long as risk management controls. Read about Red Brick Insurance who plans to offer employers a health insurance plan with the option to “electronically connect” the employees. You could almost bet that their option of not including this service would represent a higher contract, since they will be intervening in the monitoring process. A couple months ago they landed some additional funding from a VC who must think this will fly. (from a prior post below)

The Health Coach/Insurance Company – Employer plan to uses devices and phones for employees to prove their physical activity

Redbrick’s methods for tracking employees’ commitment to these health plans are surprisingly detailed (though they may smack a bit of Big Brother). For example, it offers an iPhone application that records progress on a person’s walking exercises and beams the data back to Redbrick’s system. Pedometers and watches that do the same are also in the works, VentureWire reports. This might sound a tad invasive, but the company says that employers have the choice whether or not to make employees prove that they are following their custom health maps.

Redbrick’s methods for tracking employees’ commitment to these health plans are surprisingly detailed (though they may smack a bit of Big Brother). For example, it offers an iPhone application that records progress on a person’s walking exercises and beams the data back to Redbrick’s system. Pedometers and watches that do the same are also in the works, VentureWire reports. This might sound a tad invasive, but the company says that employers have the choice whether or not to make employees prove that they are following their custom health maps.

Perhaps could members of Congress would test pilot Red Brick for us? These are the areas they don’t think or know about, but are out there behind the scenes and growing as there is no regulation over this type of activity and unfortunately instead of being pro-active, our Representatives are always re-active and try to fix things after the fact. Would members of Congress like to have an iPhone electronically attached to read and submit all their daily activities?

Here are a few other examples from the blog that have been posted:

50,000 Marriott Employees Get Online Health Alert System

The system sends alerts to an employee's doctor if there's a potential problem such as a dangerous drug interaction or a key test that's been missed. The hotel chain is using a Web-based personal health record system from ActiveHealth Management, which is owned by insurance company Aetna. Marriot gets access to the aggregated data, I which I believe does not identify each individual. At any rate, more wellness and potentially additional alerts for the patient’s doctor to sift through, but an EHR could do the same.

Employers in search of ways to help keep health insurance costs low – How far will it go?

With technology on a very fast pace today in healthcare and new devices and means for collecting data, this is an area whereby we need to be aware of what methodologies will be embraced next, in other words, where will technology lead us and what is useful technology and what is considered “intrusive” technology. Nobody is holding back when opportunities are presented and sometimes technology and opportunities for additional income get confused. When it comes to saving a dollar today and efficiency, the electronic umbilical cord could extend farther than anyone of us could imagine if the check and balance system is not kept in place.

Motorcycle-riding, sky-diving, and cigarettes. Should your employer be minding his own business, or yours?

I met someone last week who was quitting his job after 15 years. The company he worked for was acquired by another firm that had very different rules of conduct for its employees. The new company instituted very detailed guidelines about attire (all shoes must have laces), workspace (no food or drink at the desk), and behavior (no leaning on the side of desks—yes, an actual rule). Further, their health insurance policy had exclusions for items that the executives considered unwise: no coverage for treatments resulting from motorcycle accidents, sky-diving, or sexually-transmitted diseases.

Can companies do that? Certainly, when they’re paying. Whoever pays for insurance can decide what type of treatments will and won’t be covered by their insurance policy. Whenever we allow a third party to pay for our health insurance, we transfer a part of our decision-making power to them.

Customer Service with Twitter – Blue Cross Blue Shield Health Insurance Will find You

Blue Cross will find you on Twitter too.

On the other side of the coin also remember, everything you put on Twitter is open territory for all to read unless you protect your updates and allow only selected individuals. Other companies such as Dell are also using Twitter, although I could not see doing a customer support call with PC problems on Twitter, but it might do the trick and put you in contact instead of being transferred around a busy pbx system. You will be marketed if the hash mark is found by their scanners so if you don’t want to be contacted, don’t talk about them.

Anthem Blue Cross going after some outsourced HR business?

The insurers will offer you counseling to keep cost down on some of the very services that are denied or cherry picked.

Californians have access to face-to-face counseling with network providers with Anthem Blue Cross. In addition to competitive Health and EAP benefits, Anthem also offers access to Dental, Vision, Life and Disability. For more information on Anthem's EAP, visit www.anthemEAP.com. Anthem's EAP provides confidential, professional assistance when an employee's life and work are affected by personal problems such as relationship, stress, legal or financial issues, career concerns, and anxiety or depression.

Would a member of Congress try this out for us?

Aetna "Take your Pill" Lottery...

Could your employer through contract negotiations require that you participate in program like this to tie you to a device to make sure you take your medications?

Aetna, through its nonprofit foundation, is funding research to find out whether a daily lottery with cash prizes will help improve patients' medication adherence. The Aetna Foundation last fall gave researchers a $400,000 grant to fund a study at the University of Pennsylvania that will use prizes of $10 and $100 as rewards for taking medication as prescribed.

1-in-10 chance of winning $10 every day they take their medication and a 1-in-100 chance of winning $100. Each day a text message will tell a subject whether he or she has won the lottery, or, if the dose wasn't taken, whether he or she would have won.

Could Congress give this a try and report back to us and see if they think it is worthwhile?

The Muve Gruve Device Measures your Inactivity – Intrusive Technology with a Human Audit Trail?

The makers if this device specifically state on the website they are targeting insurance companies to keep the cost down, so will your carrier/employer be requesting you wear one of these to prove what level of exercise and sleep you may be getting? How long would members of Congress tolerate wearing one of these themselves I might ask? Who really needs to know exactly how much exercise you really get other than yourself. It could be a great tool without the big brother attachments.

The clip on the Gruve was designed to integrate into the shape of the device and function on virtually any type of clothing or belt to be unobtrusive to the user. The Gruve uses vibration to notify the user it is time to get moving.

A targeted customer base is corporations looking to explore the possibility of reducing the cost of insurance premiums by improving peoples health through prevention rather that treatment and those who need that extra reminder to get up and at it to stay fit.

Would members of Congress try this out for us and see exactly what is reported and it if helps? Do we have members of Congress who might benefit that could tell us whether or not they like it?

Intrusive Technology for dependents too?

I write quite a bit about new healthcare technology and this article somewhat relates to some of the monitoring devices we are now seeing in healthcare. Schools in London are now testing the device that is strapped on to a child who is determined to be unruly. The devices are slated to also help the children recognize their own trigger points and better deal with their anger, something we as humans have done as parents and teachers, so now instead of perhaps a little human intervention, the child is now being left with a device to educate oneself instead of some nice warm direction from a human?

Will children covered by health insurance companies be required to learn at an early age to monitor their heart rate if they are determined to being unruly or have any pre-existing health conditions?

More Employers Turn to Disease Management

Is this another bad experiment...to contain costs...with off the shelf disease management programs...large companies can mold such a project, but small employers get the "boxed" deal from their carriers and the recommended outsource companies who provide this, many either owned or funded by the insurance companies...bottom line is that your employer is going to want to know how "diseased' you are...

Small companies, meanwhile, purchase disease management as part of their health insurance. With a less focused approach, participation rates are lower.We are not falling off a cliff,” he says, “but we are facing a slow and long-term erosion of our employer-based system.”

Would Congress subscribe to a “Boxed Deal” and let us know how it works for them and their staff?

Medical insurance costs could use a healthy dose of reality – It’s all in the crackers?

Holy crap, is this what could be discussed in the next job interview? This is just a short excerpt, so read the entire opinion piece at the link below. This is an interviewer and interview candidate in discussion…the Dorito or the unsalted cracker may make the difference on whether or not the candidate gets the job and the employer is more engrossed with the potential insurance coverage than the overall skills of the candidate in this mock interview, in other words what is the financial exposure to the employee seems to raise to the top of the concerns, scary, yes, but even if they don’t say it, is it kicking around in the back of their heads? Is is skills or exposure today that counts?

“But as an employer who buys private health insurance for my employees, I can’t control much of that. But I can reduce my premiums by controlling what my employees eat, drink and do.”

“You can do that?”

“According to the San Francisco Chronicle, one employer not only required his employees to stop smoking, he demanded it of their spouses, too. He enforced his ban through random testing. Employees caught smoking get canned.”

“But what does all of this have to do with me?”

“As your employer, I have every legal right to ask you to authorize access to your medical records. You will eat a healthful diet and forsake bad habits that will add to our premiums.”

Weyco Inc. of suburban Lansing, Mich., performs random testing every three months, usually of about 30 employees. Workers are summoned to blow into a Breathalyzer-like device that measures carbon monoxide levels. If the reading is high, employees take a urine test. If they fail the urinalysis twice they will be dismissed. One person was fired in 2006, a company official said, and none this year.

Would members of Congress work well with being tested randomly with urine tests?

Some Companies Penalize for Health Risks

If you work for a company, be prepared...there are all types of incentives/penalties being implemented by companies relative to health care...an effort to change employee behavior..there are lots of potential legal and privacy issues yet to arise as this becomes more main stream...and some health issues can't be controlled, so as this moves on I'm sure there will be much more on this subject. As the article states, companies are using both negative and positive incentives and come in many variations. BD

In 2009 the company will start reducing pay for employees in its health plan by $10 per paycheck if their BMI — a measurement of body fat through a height and weight ratio — is in the obese range of more than 29.9. The deduction will be $5 per check if they don't meet required cholesterol, blood pressure or blood glucose measurements. Workers will be required to complete an annual health risk assessment and can appeal to have their fees dropped if they show improvement.

"It's a backdoor approach to weeding out expensive employees," legal director Jeremy Gruber said.

Could we have members of Congress and their staff adhere to such a policy? Would they all meet the BMI range and if not, have deductions made from their paychecks?

Healthcare Is the Number-One Enemy of Small Business – US Small Business Administration

Even the government’s own Small business Administration says Healthcare is the number one enemy, so why do we continue to tie insurance and healthcare to employers? Is this not an important consideration?

Excessive Incentives and Rules – Where Did the Wisdom Go in HealthCare?

Barry Schwartz makes an excellent exhibit of the “hospital janitor” and how the “human” side of his job description is completely not existent. It’s the human side of the job that is left out in the job description. There’s one real good message for all of us here.

We have too many rules and it is creating a downward spiral of sorts and we also have excessive incentives, especially in medicine. It makes you stop and think, is this profitable or is it right? As an example, risk management is only interested in profitability, thus we end up working with payers that are only perhaps looking at one side of the coin, is is profitable, and the part about whether or not it is right is buried. Doctors fight this all the time, just ask one.

We use the rules, or other wise called “ALGORITHMS” created in computer code to determine our decision making processes, and the process of whether or not it is right or wrong can get lost in the translation. SO WHAT CAN WE DO TO BRING BACK THE WISDOM? Listen to the video and I think there are some real good points made here and ideas to ponder and think about.

All the above examples are what is wrong with employer based healthcare and how technology, if not implemented properly affects the every day quality of life with an individual. We have a lot of creative individuals in this country with a lot of ideas, but implementation and education is what makes these items succeed, and not greed or saving money as the only focus.

In pushing for employer initiatives, perhaps Congress might investigate and see the real side of how this works and not just the fine print. It would be nice to see some pro-active action instead of re-active, but that takes a lot of effort and education from all sides, from Congress all the way down the ladder. This could be an real exercise for Congress with Healthcare to understand the full circuit and not just one side of the issue. This is one of the reasons I always advocate to have the “Smart People” at the top of the helm, as they are educated and aware up front and we have less catching up from behind. Let’s see some of those Congressional BMIs to start the ball rolling. BD

WASHINGTON — In its effort to overhaul health care, Congress is planning to give employers sweeping new authority to reward employees for healthy behavior, including better diet, more exercise, weight loss and smoking cessation.

Congress is seriously considering proposals to provide tax credits or other subsidies to employers who offer wellness programs that meet federal criteria. In addition, lawmakers said they would make it easier for employers to use financial rewards or penalties to promote healthy behavior among employees.

Congress is seriously considering proposals to provide tax credits or other subsidies to employers who offer wellness programs that meet federal criteria. In addition, lawmakers said they would make it easier for employers to use financial rewards or penalties to promote healthy behavior among employees.

Frank B. McArdle, a health policy expert at Hewitt Associates, a benefits consulting firm, said, “Wellness and prevention programs have become a mainstream part of the benefits offered by large employers, and it’s virtually certain that Congress will include incentives for such programs” in its bill. The goals of such programs are to help people control blood pressure, fight obesity and manage diabetes and other chronic conditions.

Growing numbers of employers have adopted wellness programs after finding that they can lower health costs and increase the productivity of workers. Financial incentives include gift certificates and premium discounts or surcharges.

Critics say that holding people financially responsible for their health behavior is potentially unfair and that employers have no business prying into their employees’ private lives. “You are supposed to be paid on the basis of how you do your job, not how often you go to the gym or how many cheeseburgers you eat,” Mr. Maltby said.

If an employer offers financial incentives to employees for lowering cholesterol, losing weight or stopping smoking, the amount of such rewards generally may not exceed 20 percent of the cost of coverage.

Many employers would like to offer larger incentives, and many in Congress want to let them do so.

Congress Plans Incentives for Healthy Habits - NYTimes.com

Related Reading:

Simple Finger Device May Help Predict Future Heart Events – Endo-PAT2000 System

Aetna "Take your Pill" Lottery...

The Human Audit Trail to automatically track your fitness and sleep and a few other things…

The Wellness Programs: Payouts to Those Who Work Out - Insurers give discounts on premiums

High-tech gadgets hit doctor-patient relationships and more..

Allstate testing “brain fitness” software on older drivers

Doctor's Outrage: Asked to Rat on Patients?

The Muve Gruve Device Measures your Inactivity – Intrusive Technology with a Human Audit Trail?

Discrimination and Health Insurance: Big Brother in the Workplace and Beyond

Health Insurance Reserves – How much is in the till, could it be 1 or 2 trillion nationwide?

Express Scripts has a new Employer Plan – Home Delivery by Default

The Cisco Medical Clinic – Company Medical Assistance and Consults On Site

Intrusive Technology?

Healthcare Is the Number-One Enemy of Small Business – US Small Business Administration

Excessive Incentives and Rules – Where Did the Wisdom Go in HealthCare?

Algorithms, Formulas and Investigations leads to AARP suspending sales of some health plans

John Deer Machinery -failure of employer-based health insurance

Medical Tourism Starts at Home - Contracts and Brokering

Rising Health-Care Costs Hurt Small Biz

Medical insurance costs could use a healthy dose of reality – It’s all in the crackers?

Whirlpool suspends 39 workers, says they lied about smoking

Motorcycle-riding, sky-diving, and cigarettes. Should your employer be minding his own business, or yours?

Clarian won't dock workers who fail to meet health marks

Ending Employer-Based Health Insurance Is a Good Idea

More Employers Turn to Disease Management

Employers, Health Insurers Increasingly Use Care Managers To Review Physicians' Treatment Plans, Ensure They Conform To Evidence-Based Practices

Employers get tough on health**

Some Companies Penalize for Health Risks

Technorati Tags: Healthcare,medical records,technology,health insurance,Fitness,Software,fitness monitoring,Big Brother,Home Monitoring,Wellness programs,Employers

Employers in search of ways to help keep health insurance costs low – How far will it go?

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 17:23:00 GMT

Coming out of the studies and search for a solution new co-pays of $30 for primary care doctor visits and $40 for specialists are showing up. Employees are being urged to use an urgent clinic location versus the emergency room when perhaps a visit there would be less expensive than the traditional ER room visit. This also puts more of an awareness too with the clinics to be sure and diagnose and properly send those patients to the ER room if it is beyond their model of care and services they offer.

Next is the “employee wellness” programs which can offer a lot of useful help and information, as long as they work in partnership with physicians and carry the same better healthcare message. Some employers are making participation mandatory now where it has been voluntary in the past. This leaves the door wide open though to make sure the wellness programs do in fact have better healthcare as a theme and are not just another item that will maintain first focus on risk management. Areas like removing french fries from a cafeteria menu are great as if it’s not there, we won’t eat or order it. The question lies though on how powerful and at what levels wellness coaches and programs will intervene, and we come back to balance once more and risk management. If they grow beyond the initial assessment and look beyond day to day accepted better healthcare education and methods to monitor, then we could have another monster in the making.

With technology on a very fast pace today in healthcare and new devices and means for collecting data, this is an area whereby we need to be aware of what methodologies will be embraced next, in other words, where will technology lead us and what is useful technology and what is considered “intrusive” technology. Nobody is holding back when opportunities are presented and sometimes technology and opportunities for additional income get confused. When it comes to saving a dollar today and efficiency, the electronic umbilical cord could extend farther than anyone of us could imagine if the check and balance system is not kept in place.

I guess working with networks and software all the time creates this awareness as I know there’s always the downside and irritation side of technology and keeping this in check so we can still maintain the standards of dignity as humans is something we need to make sure we don’t lose track of, thus balance and congenial meetings of the minds will be more important than ever. The related reading section here may offer a little more insight as to why I believe an overall awareness is in order, as there is nobody minding the shop with healthcare being so fragmented and so many different areas of focus, that some of this gets lost in the shuffle, as technology is evolving so very rapidly in so many areas, before you know it, what is actually helpful technology and what is intrusive comes down to the same fine line and it should have a focus of better healthcare rather than the pursuit of risk management only. BD

It’s time for employees to choose from the health insurance and benefits options their employers are offering for next year. Businesses are scurrying to communicate and educate workers about medical coverage and benefits offerings during annual open enrollment season this month. More South Florida companies are changing health plans in 2009 to focus on preventive care, while steering workers into high-deductible plans tied to tax-free health savings accounts. Employers say they're trying to keep premium increases down because they recognize workers already are stretched with higher costs of living.

Mahoney & Associates, a benefits management firm in Fort Lauderdale, is urging clients to offer employees one health plan that combines a high annual deductible with a health savings account workers contribute to through payroll deduction. Employees spend healthcare dollars more cautiously when they have a financial interest in the plan, said Bill Mahoney, the firm's founder.

Gail Ferro, senior marketing manager for Spherion, said her employer is urging workers to go to an urgent care clinic instead of the more costly hospital emergency room when appropriate. With three children ages 9 to 17 who play sports, she has made a few trips to the emergency room, including one for herself when she recently fell off a ladder.

Related Reading:

Fewer Americans Getting Health Insurance Via Work

The Wellness Programs: Payouts to Those Who Work Out - Insurers give discounts on premiums

The Human Audit Trail to automatically track your fitness and sleep and a few other things…

Allstate testing “brain fitness” software on older drivers

GE to Market Home Monitoring Appliance

Employers in search of ways to help keep health insurance costs low -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

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