Helping Employees Think Healthy After the Holidays
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle during the holidays can be difficult.  While it’s a good time to relax and unwind, the combination of robust meals and cold weather can lead to unintended weight gain.  Having information about balanced diets and exercise, along with a supportive workplace environment, will make it easier for employees to return to their pre-holiday health.  Following are a few hints to help your workforce stay healthy this winter. 

• Encourage physical activity:
  • Allow employees time each day to walk/exercise
  • Provide employees with pedometers
  • Encourage use of the stairs
  • Offer to subsidize gym memberships
  • Support organized employee sports teams
• Moderate caloric consumption at the office:
  • Offer salad options with sandwiches
  • Offer water or other low-calorie beverages
  • Substitute desserts with fresh fruit bowls
  • Limit the amount of candy bowls that are available
  • Limit food offered during meetings that do not occur at meal times
  • Offer healthy foods in vending machines and in the cafeteria  

The winter season also brings cold and flu illnesses to the office.  To help your employees avoid sickness, encourage flu vaccinations through February and post signs in bathrooms to encourage hand washing. 

New Study Finds Employers Fail to Make Cost-Effective Healthcare Choices
A new study by Partnership for Prevention found that employers are failing to optimize their financial returns when crafting employee health plans.  The study, published in the American Journal of Health Promotion, indicates that employers could substantially increase workforce productivity and health plan cost-effectiveness by extending coverage to include preventive services such as tobacco cessation, influenza vaccination and alcohol-problem offerings. 

Despite their acknowledged cost-benefit, lifestyle modification preventive services are currently offered by fewer than 20 percent of employers – with only four percent of employers offer optimal tobacco cessation services.  Successful tobacco cessation programs, however, have the potential to not only lower employee health costs, but also to increase productivity through fewer breaks and absences.

For many working Americans, clinical preventive services coverage largely depends on their employer-sponsored health plan and employer size, according to the study.  Almost half of large employers require health plans to cover some clinical preventive services, and these large employers are also more likely than smaller employers to provide financial incentives to employees who use the services. 

HMOs are more likely to provide clinical preventive services to plan participants than PPOs or POSs, especially lifestyle intervention and screening services.  The study noted, however, that employee enrollment in HMOs has declined in recent years relative to PPO enrollment, which could result in a reduction of preventive service coverage. 

Regardless of health plan, most employers are likely to experience short-term health premium increases as a result of offering preventive services to employees.  To minimize these costs and maximize return on investment, the study suggests employers prioritize the most cost-effective preventive services - tobacco cessation services, influenza vaccination and alcohol-problem prevention.

Highsmith Inc., T.A.G.

As one of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin’s premier employers, Highsmith Inc. is dedicated to employee satisfaction and well-being.  “Developing the full potential of the business means developing the potential of the people who make it work,” explains company Chairman Duncan Highsmith.   

Beginning in 1989, a 53 percent increase in overall health care costs prompted Highsmith, a leading distributor of mail-order supplies to schools and libraries, to develop initiatives that better manage the health of its more than 200 employees.  Highsmith made the decision to develop a wellness program that addressed both the physical and mental well-being of the workforce.  The program, entitled T.A.G., stands for:

• Total commitment to developing human potential
• Access to learning opportunities
• Growth as an individual and a company 

Through its T.A.G. program, Highsmith offers a comprehensive menu of health promotion and disease prevention activities and programs, such as domestic abuse outreach and education, stress reduction tips and time management courses.  Additionally, Highsmith’s rural campus offers employees a one-mile walking path to use on their breaks.

The T.A.G. program’s comprehensive approach to employee development, health risk management and wellness programming has not gone unnoticed.  The program received the 2004 Innovation in Prevention award for the “Healthy Workforce – Small Employer” category.  The awards were presented in December 2004 by then-Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson.

The institution of the T.A.G. program resulted in a relatively small (4.9 percent average) increase in health insurance premiums between 2002 and 2004, while the average company tenure rose to 14 years.  The T.A.G. program also generated a 53 percent decrease in employees’ high-risk total cholesterol and a 52 percent decrease in employees’ high blood pressure. 

Highsmith’s commitment to managing health care costs through a healthier and more productive workforce fully contributes to its unique culture.  The initiative demonstrates Highsmith’s belief that, “Changing the bottom line with healthcare cost means changing lives through education and opportunity.”

America’s Health Rankings Report
Nearly a quarter of Americans are obese according to a recent report issued by United Health Foundation (UHF), Partnership for Prevention and the American Public Health Association.  The America’s Health Rankings report, released in December 2005, provides a relative analysis of the nation’s health, including longitudinal public health trends, a state-by-state health snapshot and a series of additional key findings. Partnership for Prevention co-sponsors the America’s Health Rankings annual report to help drive health promotion and disease prevention discussions across the country.  

In addition to the obesity findings, the 2005 report found that the overall prevalence of smoking failed to decrease during the past decade. Tobacco use continues to be the number one preventable cause of illness and death, killing 1,200 Americans per day. Reducing smoking rates has the potential to reduce the incidences of associated chronic illnesses such as asthma, cancer, heart disease and stroke.

The report also ranks each state based on an index of healthcare factors. Minnesota is currently the healthiest state in the country, followed closely by Vermont and New Hampshire. Twenty-nine states, however, are lower than the national rate of healthcare improvement.  Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi reside at the bottom of the rankings.

Partnership for Prevention co-hosted a press conference for the report’s release on December 12, 2005 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  To view recent articles about America’s Health Rankings, visit, Philadelphia Inquirer, Congressional Quarterly, Columbus Dispatch, and Boston Globe. 

To download a complete copy of America’s Health Rankings, visit www.americashealthrankings.org