Taking Control of Personal Health Records Can Improve Health

In recent years, doctors and hospitals have been investing in creating and compiling electronic medical records. Given as much as $30 billion in incentives, the medical world has digitized millions of Americans’ medical records with the hope to improve individual care and to cut health care costs. In an ironic twist, it is often easier for government regulators, marketers and bill collectors to access health information than it is for the patients.    

Employers should encourage employees to take control of their health care records and become their own patient advocates and informed health care consumers. In owning one’s health data, a patient can use their health records to keep themselves healthy or control medical problems. It also makes it easy for patients to transfer records from one doctor or hospital to another, readily provide information when consulting specialists and seeking second opinions, or shop for less expensive care. Having access to personal medical records can reduce medical errors, simplify costly administrative paperwork and improve an individual’s well-being. Patients become a second set of eyes to spot errors, avoid repeat tests, detect fraud, offset malpractice lawsuits, and potentially reduce associated disability and health insurance costs.

Below are five tips for employees who want to gain access and take charge of their personal health records.

Demand data. Under federal law, copies of an individual’s medical information should be made readily available from any health care provider.

Organize data. There are many software programs and apps available to streamline medical information. An entire family can have each member’s information in one place to track medications, immunizations, vital signs, test results and appointments, as well as set fitness goals and track progress. Additionally, every diagnosis, doctor and hospital visit, lab test, X-ray, and prescription, can be accessible from many smartphones.

Share data. Electronic records make it easier to bring medical information to other doctors or caregivers without having to make an appointment. For families, records of medications, allergies, blood type and major health issues can easily be shared with schools and other family members.

Generate data. With wearable fitness devices, social wellness apps and employer-sponsored wellness initiatives, individuals can monitor health easily.

Protect data. Storing information on a personal computer or smartphone does make it vulnerable to loss, theft or hacking. It’s critical to protect personal health records with passwords and to ensure that any records sent or received are encrypted.

A number of our clients use the Wellness Workdays’ HIPAA-compliant portal as part of their wellness program. The portal collects and stores patient information on health and wellness and allows employees to access and track their data over time – from weight and BMI to blood pressure, cholesterol and exercise. The portal also houses each employee’s personal health assessment (PHA) and screening results, as well as their personal health record, making it easy for employees to download and print their information and bring it to medical appointments.

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Visit Wellness Workdays for more information about our worksite wellness programs.

Will Exercise Lead to Weight Loss Without Proper Nutrition?

Without a doubt, exercise improves one’s overall health; however, when it comes to losing weight, recent research has shown that relying on exercise alone is not enough. Eating the right foods and consuming the right amount of calories, contribute more to weight control than exercise, according to the New York Times article “To lose weight, eating less is far more important than exercising more.”

As an example, if an overweight woman consumes 1,000 more calories per day than she is burning, the fact that she exercises for 30 minutes each day and burns 300 calories still leaves her with 700 extra calories per day – and 4,900 extra calories per week – which will lead to weight gain. Exercise consumes far fewer calories than many people think. Thirty minutes of jogging or swimming laps might burn 300 calories but many people, fat or fit, can’t maintain a strenuous 30-minute exercise regimen every day. They could, however, achieve a significant reduction in calories by eliminating two 16-ounce sodas each day.

While we firmly believe that exercise should remain a part of everyone’s day as it has been proven to lower blood pressure, reduce mental stress, and improve outcomes in musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, pulmonary diseases, neurological diseases and depression, for weight control, a nutritional focus on one’s diet is what works best. Dieting is often viewed as a drastic and rigid change to daily food consumption and has a high risk of putting the pounds back on.  A more successful approach is gradual change to one’s daily diet, done in a more sustainable, nutritious way. The challenge is to make healthy, dietary changes versus simply adding more exercise once metabolism slows and the desire to eat more increases.

Wellness Workdays works with a number of employers to provide its Nutrition for a Lifetime program to employees. The program focuses on building a foundation of basic nutrition knowledge, developing healthy eating habits and making small changes that lead to sustainable weight loss. We have helped employees achieve weight loss and reductions in BMI while also reducing their health risks for medical conditions such as hypertension.

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Visit Wellness Workdays for more information about our worksite wellness programs.

Wellness Trends . . . Companies Focus on VOI Rather than ROI

With escalating health care costs eroding every company’s bottom line, employee wellness programs are quickly becoming the norm at many companies nationwide. In fact, MetLife’s 10th Annual Study of Employee Benefits Trends found that 77 percent of employers with more than 500 employees offer wellness programs and 44 percent of all companies, regardless of size, offer wellness programs. 

Whether you already have a wellness plan in place or are considering implementing one, you will want to evaluate the effectiveness of your program. A number of studies have researched and evaluated wellness program ROI and the benefit-to-cost ratios range from $1.49 to $4.91 in benefits for every dollar spent. However, calculating ROI can be a time consuming and expensive process for many companies. There are numerous variables that each company must take into consideration.

With so many companies already committed to investing in wellness, there is a growing trend to move away from complicated ROI calculations towards measurements based on VOI—or value on investment. It’s common sense that employees who begin eating better, quit smoking, take their medications and/or exercise will cost their employers less money. By looking at VOI, companies can evaluate their wellness programs based on the self-defined outcomes that are important to their organizations. 

Since different outcomes are important to different organizations, examining the value on your investment lets you focus on the outcomes that are important to your company and take steps to fulfill them. Take the time to map out your objectives when you start planning your wellness program.  What are your goals?  Are you looking to:

• Get a sedentary population moving?
• Engage a majority of employees in wellness initiatives?
• Reduce absenteeism? 
• Increase productivity?
• Improve morale and loyalty?
• Retain and attract top-notch employees?
• Keep yearly insurance premiums from rising?

By setting goals, you can put simple methods in place to track data. If you are looking to get a sedentary population moving, exercise can be logged and recorded. If you want to track participation in programs, use sign in sheets. You get the idea. It’s important to collect as much data as you can and use it to demonstrate that your wellness program is achieving the objectives that you want to achieve. If you do this, you will realize that there is tremendous value in a healthy workforce.

We’d love to hear from you. How does your company measure the effectiveness of its wellness program?  Or, if you are just getting started, what are you looking to accomplish and how do you plan to measure you results?

It’s a fact: Educated lifestyle choices drive down medical costs

Do you know the per dollar yearly health care costs for your employees?  Has anyone analyzed the medical claims for your employee population?  Would you believe that 87.5% of medical costs are a result of lifestyle?

Imagine if you could educate and incentivize your employees to make healthier choices and live a more healthful lifestyle.  You’d cultivate a healthier, more productive work force and both you and your employees would save money.  This is just what some county employers are doing in Ohio and the results are impressive.

According to “Counties saving big on health care costs <http://www.middletownjournal.com/news/middletown-news/counties-saving-big-on-health-care-costs-1379901.html> ” in the May 22 issue of the Middletown Journal <http://www.middletownjournal.com/news/middletown-news/counties-saving-big-on-health-care-costs-1379901.html> , counties in Ohio are reaping the benefits of strategic wellness planning.  Below are a few county initiatives and results.
 
With 3,200 employees and $50 million in annual medical care costs, Montgomery County formed a task force in 2010 to address its medical costs, which had been rising about 11 percent per year since 2005, higher than the nine percent national average.  When it was uncovered that the bulk of costs were from illnesses related to lifestyle choices, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, they decided to implement a wellness incentives and a high deductible health care plan.  The changes are credited with holding down rising health care costs by up to $4 million a year.

Greene County, with health care costs running approximately $11 million per year, has offered wellness incentives to its 850 full-time employees for the past five years.  The county has 22 health goals that employees may choose from, such as maintaining a recommended BMI, keeping cholesterol under 200, getting certain health screenings or meeting a fitness goal.  Employees who meet a set number of goals get one month of their health insurance contribution waived.  The county determined that the wellness program has reduced the cost of health care by two percent and has resulted in a decline in the number of catastrophic illnesses.

Other counties in the state are getting on board with wellness programs and looking for ways to reduce costs.  Warren County, which spent about $16 million on health care benefits in 2011, is looking to reduce costs by bringing health-related programs to the office.  Last year, it offered employees an extra paid day off work if they participated in a blood screening program.  Now there’s an incentive!  Test results from the screening were sent to employees’ homes or directly to their doctors. More than 72% of employees participated in the screening.

While some still question the cost savings associated with wellness plans, numerous studies show that worksite wellness programs consistently generate cost savings.  When working with a wellness provider, it is important to select one who is certified in calculating a return on investment in your program.  Wellness programs generate a wealth of meaningful data and savings can be measured by carefully tracking this data.

Wellness Workdays works with counties throughout the country to implement strategic wellness plans that save money and improve productivity.  Check out our web site at www.wellnesswordays.com <http://www.wellnesswordays.com>  <http://www.wellnesswordays.com>  to learn more.

Is Your BMI Misclassifying Your Body Fat?

For years, individuals have been concerned with the number on the scale.  More recently BMI has been the gold standard for calculating body fat, but a recent study suggests that BMI calculations are misclassifying roughly half of women and just over 20% of men as healthy when their body-fat composition suggests they are obese.

What is BMI and is it an accurate measurement of your health?

BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight, but it does not measure the percentage of body fat—the ideal measure of obesity.  BMI only takes into consideration weight and height, not age, gender or muscle mass; and it does not distinguish between lean body mass and fat mass. 

A professional athlete may be overweight according to BMI standards, even without a high percentage of body fat, because of the size and mass of their muscles.  Likewise, an elderly person may have a healthy BMI even though muscle mass has been lost due to aging.  BMI can also classify moderate weight individuals as healthy even when an individual has high body-fat percentages.

BMI dates back to the 19th century when it was developed to compare populations, such as comparing the average weight of adults in the Russia to the average weight of adults in Italy.  It was never intended for individual measurements.  Nevertheless, it became a popular tool and was thought to be a better determiner of healthy body weight than weight alone because it height takes into consideration.

A person's BMI is a measure of his/her weight in relation to his/her height.  To calculate your BMI, divide your weight in pounds by your height in inches squared then multiply 703 or use an online calculator.  A BMI of less than 18.5 or less is classified as underweight; a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is a healthy weight; a BMI of 25 to 29.9 is overweight; and a BMI of over 30 indicates obesity.

Based on new research, some medical professionals are lobbying for a change in the way body fat is measured.  One of the most accurate measurements of healthy weight is body composition, which measures body fat and calculates the percentage of lean muscle mass.  These factors, along with weight, height, age and gender provide a clearer picture of a person’s current health status, risk potential and areas for improvement.

Wellness Workdays’ Total Body Composition Management System is the first and only standardized method for individuals – as well as organizations – to consistently measure and monitor body composition with clinical-grade accuracy.  It’s non-invasive, repeatable and easy to use. Employees can precisely measure body composition (body fat), lean muscle mass and hydration levels.

It’s important to remember that body fat alone is only one factor in leading a healthy life.  Family history and harmful habits such as smoking must be taken into consideration to provide an overall health evaluation. Share your thoughts on BMI and body fat.

How Balanced Is Your Child's School Lunch?

Blog by: Courtney Standish Hernandez, 

 

MS, RD, LDN, CWPC

When I ask my 4 year old what he wants for dinner, guess what he says?  “Pizza!”  He is the son of a registered dietitian and is served healthy foods for all (well, almost all) of his meals and snacks.  But, given the choice, he would prefer to eat pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

My son is not yet in the public school system, but I am already worried about the choices he would make for lunch once there.  Like other parents, I will put a limit on the frequency with which he can buy school lunch, believing that the lunch I send from home will be healthier than what he buys at school.  But, many parents around the country rely on the lunches at school to provide their kids with a balanced meal.   But, how balanced is it?

The good news is that the government recently enacted new standards, for the first time in 15 years, making school lunches healthier.  School cafeterias are now required to offer fruits and vegetables every day, increase whole grain-rich foods, serve only fat-free or low-fat milk, limit calories based on children's ages, and reduce the amounts of saturated fat, trans fats and sodium, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  These are all wonderful and welcome changes and in many school districts have been in place for years.

The bad news is that the tomato paste on pizza is still considered a vegetable.  Last year Congress blocked the attempt by the USDA to stop counting tomato paste on pizza as a vegetable.  Congress also blocked the attempt by the USDA to limit the number of times French fries and pizza could be served in the cafeterias.  School lunches are big business and with big business comes powerful lobbyists in Washington who don’t want a change in the status quo.  Unfortunately, Congress put the interest of big business ahead of the interest of our nation’s children.  And we wonder why we have an obesity epidemic in this country???

These new standards are a step in the right direction; they are just not a big enough step.  We have kids with type-2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and 16 year-olds undergoing bariatric surgery.  Simply offering more fruits and vegetables is not enough.  We need to take away more of the unhealthy options served in school cafeterias.   If kids are given the choice between French fries or roasted baby potatoes, guess which most will choose?  We need to get to the point where the French fries are not an option.  Or, at the very least, an infrequent option.  We also need to give our kids more credit.  If the only foods we ever offer them to eat are French fries, hot dogs, chicken fingers and pizza then they will grow up thinking this is what they are supposed to eat.  What if we offered them real, oven-roasted chicken?  What if we gave them a side of cooked carrots with their chicken?  What if they ate it?  The more frequently you offer kids real, healthy, foods the more they will eat it.  Especially if the unhealthy choices are not sitting at the same table.

For now, the best bet is to send your child to school with their lunch box full of fresh fruit, whole grains and lean proteins.  Buying school lunch should be an occasional treat.  Hopefully, one day, Congress will pass standards strict enough that we can feel our children will only have healthy options from which to choose when they are in the school cafeteria.  Hopefully, that day will be soon.

Let's Band Together and See What We Can Do as A Team!

Let’s face it, exercising and eating healthfully can be a challenge, even for people who are currently healthy.  Wouldn’t it be more fun to band together and see what we can do as a team?  This is the idea behind two government challenges, one issued by Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett in 2008 and a more recent challenge issued by Boston Mayor Tom Menino this year.

The OKC Million Program challenged metro area residents to lose one million pounds.  The effort took four years but Oklahoma City reached its goal this year.  Over 47,000 individuals participated in the challenge and lost a combined total of 8,000 inches from their waists and walked over 1.2 million miles.  The challenge is part of an effort to change Oklahoma City’s image as one of the most unhealthy cities in the country.

Earlier this year Mayor Menino promised to help Boston residents shed a million pounds.  The citywide campaign, currently titled Boston Moves for Health, will launch this spring.   A customized web site will invite residents to record their goals and workouts while tracking their weight loss.  The city plans to use the web site as a resource where residents can locate indoor and outdoor exercise activities and learn more about health and wellness.  As part of the initiative the city and its partners will host bike rides, introductory exercise classes and other health and wellness related activities throughout the year.  Educational kits will also be distributed to city businesses with information on promoting exercise and healthy food choices at work.

Boston’s program will not be aimed solely at adults.  More than 20,000 school-aged children in Boston are overweight.  The mayor will work with daycare providers, educating them on how to prepare healthy snacks and how to incorporate more physical activity into their programs. Nutritionists will also be hired to work with local restaurants to develop healthy kids’ menus.

We are excited about these two programs because they are raising awareness of obesity and its health risks and taking action to make positive changes while reaching so many people.  We congratulate Oklahoma City on its initiative and in meeting its objective!  We look forward to seeing Boston’s program in action later this year.

The Wellness Workdays team is here to help you and your employees develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle.  Our award winning corporate wellness programs can help your employees improve their health while maximizing productivity and saving your company money.  We offer some of the most exciting (and proven effective) team-based wellness challenges and walking programs available. We've analyzed our programs and seen as much as an ROI of 3.8. 

We also offer programs aimed at defeating diabetes, metabolic syndrome and stress, managing mental and emotional wellness, and vetoing vices. In addition, we provide insightful and engaging seminars and webinars on wellness, nutrition and fitness.  Our clients rave about our programs and many employees reach out to us to let us know the positive impact our programming has had on their lives.  It’s truly a rewarding experience for all.