Category: Benefits

Skin Cancer – Prevention Guidelines

Since its inception in 1979, The Skin Cancer Foundation has always recommended using a sunscreen with an SPF 15 or higher as one important part of a complete sun protection regimen. Sunscreen alone is not enough, however. Read our full list of skin cancer prevention tips.

  • Seek the shade, especially between 10 AM and 4 PM.
  • Do not burn.Avoid tanning and UV tanning booths.
  • Cover up with clothing, including a broad-brimmed hat and UV-blocking sunglasses.
  • Use a broad spectrum UVA/UVB sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher every day.
  • For extended outdoor activity, use a water-resistant, broad spectrum UVA/UVB sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher.
  • Apply 1 ounce 2 tablespoons of sunscreen to your entire body 30 minutes before going outside.Reapply every two hours or immediately after swimming or excessive sweating.
  • Keep newborns out of the sun. Sunscreens should be used on babies over the age of six months.Examine your skin head-to-toe every month.
  • See your physician every year for a professional skin exam.

via Prevention Guidelines – SkinCancer.org.

Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity Leading Health Indicators

Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity Good nutrition, physical activity, and a healthy body weight are essential parts of a person’s overall health and well-being. Together, these can help decrease a person’s risk of developing serious health conditions, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer. A healthful diet, regular physical activity, and achieving and maintaining a healthy weight also are paramount to managing health conditions so they do not worsen over time.

via Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity Leading Health Indicators – Healthy People 2020.

Lifting properly to prevent back injury

Back problems: Proper lifting No one is immune to back injury.

Whether you have a strong back or have hurt your back before, it is well worth it to:

  • Stop yourself before casually picking up a light or heavy load.
  • Plan in your mind for the best way to lift whats in front of you. This could include enlisting help from one or more people.
  • Lift and move slowly and carefully.

The time you take to use the right lifting mechanics is far less than the days, weeks, or months it can take to heal from a back injury.

via Lifting properly to prevent back injury.

Ambulance Down in the Valley – Poetic Case for Prevention

In 1895, Joseph Malins wrote a poem entitled “Ambulance Down in the Valley”, and the following is an excerpt from his poetic case for prevention:

Better guide well the young than reclaim them when old,

For the voice of true wisdom is calling.

“To rescue the fallen is good, but ’tis best

To prevent other people from falling.”

Better close up the source of temptation and crime

Than deliver from dungeon or galley;

Better put a strong fence ’round the top of the cliff

Than an ambulance down in the valley.

Our current medical system is very much like that “ambulance down in the valley”. The current onslaught of people suffering from chronic disease, illnesses and injuries is disturbing. However, even more disheartening is that many, if not most, of those medical conditions could be avoided or significantly delayed – if only  those people could turn back the hands of time and alter the millions of small but significant daily choices that led to those unintended consequences. The harsh reality is that largely, how we live dictates how we die. We would be better served to consider the full value of health rather than the inexorable cost of dying. Let’s continue to build a strong fence ’round the top of the cliff.

Injury: The Leading Cause of Death for Persons 1-44 in U.S.

Injury: The Leading Cause of Death Among Persons 1-44In 2007 in the United States, injuries, including all causes of unintentional and violence-related injuries combined, accounted for 51% of all deaths among persons ages 1-44 years of age – that is more deaths than non-communicable diseases and infectious diseases combined.Injury Deaths Compared to Other Leading Causes of Death for Persons Ages 1-44, United States, 2007Injury FactsMore than 180,000 deaths from injury each year — 1 person every 3 minutes. Leading cause of death for people ages 1-44 in the US.  More than 2.8 million people hospitalized with injury each year. More than 29 million people treated in Emergency Department for injury each year. More than $406 billion annually in medical costs and lost productivity.

via CDC – Injury: The Leading Cause of Death for Persons 1-44 in U.S. – Injury Center.

The 5 keys to a Healthier, Safer, More Productive Workforce

Not all Employers are the same and neither are the results of their risk management efforts. High performing companies follow these 5 key strategies.

  • First is safety intervention, that is, the attempt to prevent injuries from happening at all (measured as Safety Diligence, Ergonomic Solutions, and Safety Training).
  • Second is disability management, the set of strategies to minimize the disability consequences of a given injury or disease arising from the workplace (measured as Disability Case Monitoring and Proactive Return-to-Work Program).
  • Third is health promotion, which represents an attempt to intervene directly with individuals to encourage more healthy lifestyles, in the expectation that this will reduce the likelihood of a workplace accident or disease, or reduce the lost work time resulting from a given injury or disease (measured as Wellness Orientation).
  • Fourth is the general environment of the firm and the orientation of its management in areas measured as People Oriented Culture and Active Safety Leadership.
  • Fifth is the implementation, measurement and adjustment of the first four.

Disability can be managed and those who do it well can expect to be rewarded with lower disability costs, more satisfied workers, higher productivity and, ultimately, higher profits.

The Business Risk of Healthcare Reform

Health-care reform is a business risk, and regardless of whether you believe it will exist in its current form, be modified, or go away altogether, from a prudency standpoint HR, finance, and senior leadership need to be thinking about it from a scenario-planning perspective. In many companies health care decisions are made in silos driven by benefit agents advising HR. This has more to do with shifting health care costs to employees rather than managing risk. We recommend HR work with finance and senior leadership on a 5 year benefit strategy with wellness initiatives designed to get buy-in at the company’s highest levels. This dovetails nicely with health-care reform.

 

The Problem With Wellness

The term “wellness” can have a different meaning to different people. I like the following definitions:

1) The quality or state of being healthy in body and mind, as the result of deliberate effort.

2) An approach to healthcare that emphasizes preventing illness and prolonging life, as opposed to emphasizing treating diseases.

Business leaders are interested in how “wellness” will impact their bottom line. Unfortunately many have tried ineffective or poorly executed strategies and are now turned off by the term. I have found that an integrated well executed strategy following the 5 steps of risk management is most effective in delivering results.

 

CDC Vital Signs – Making Health Care Safer: Stopping C. difficile Infections

People getting medical care can catch serious infections called health care-associated infections (HAIs). While most types of HAIs are declining, one – caused by the germ C. difficile* – remains at historically high levels. C. difficile causes diarrhea linked to 14,000 American deaths each year. Those most at risk are people, especially older adults, who take antibiotics and also get medical care. When a person takes antibiotics, good germs that protect against infection are destroyed for several months. During this time, patients can get sick from C. difficile picked up from contaminated surfaces or spread from a health care provider’s hands. About 25% of C. difficile infections first show symptoms in hospital patients; 75% first show in nursing home patients or in people recently cared for in doctors’ offices and clinics. C. difficile infections cost at least $1 billion in extra health care costs annually.

via CDC Vital Signs – Making Health Care Safer: Stopping C. difficile Infections.

Five Steps to a Healthier Workforce and Lower Health Care Costs

We have found that the key to a successful wellness strategy is to implement a process that follows the 5 steps of risk management.

* Identify risk with Health Risk Assessment at over 90% participation without paying employees to complete one. (high participation is key and where most wellness plans fail)

* Analyze the HRA summary to identify your populations 4 key risk factors along with health plan and work comp claim data. (without high participation in the health Risk Assessments this information may not be credible)

* Control risk by implementing a customized health and wellness strategy which includes face to face or telephonic coaching to encourage behavior change. (without behavior change there will be no savings)

 * Finance risk by matching the right benefit plan design to assure that any savings go to the employer instead of the insurance company.(we have been successful in getting work comp carriers to give savings upfront by demonstrating successful implementation of the first 3 steps)

* Measure results by benchmarking how many risk factors each employee has in 3 groups low, medium and high. Most groups start at around 50% low risk and will move up to 70% low risk in 3 to 4 years.

Fewer risk factors leads to less disease and lower cost.