Posts Tagged ‘Corporation’

Health Promotion : Health Insurance Corporation Accountability.

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

Are your health care programs delivering on your vendors’ promises?

Just as importantly, how can you hold providers accountable when you’re not getting what you compensated for?

Here is one proven way –  Develop a provider scorecard. Scorecards alone won’t bring down your healthcare costs. But they’ll at least help make sure your business – and employees – get everything you’re paying for.

The tool can help you measure plan performance with greater precision – and identify specific areas that need improvement. Best of all, any corporation can adopt the technique to fit their needs. Here’s how it works.

1. Choose specific rating areas

Benefit pros who’ve successfully adopted the scorecard system recommend grading vendors on five to 10 measurable areas, like –

• Claims processing. Are employees’ medical claims turned around in a timely fashion? Are you hearing complaints that the explanations of benefits (EOBs) are slow to arrive or hard to understand?

• Disputed and resolved claims. Do employee questions and complaints about denied or still-pending claims get answered rapidly and thoroughly? How often are you forced to go to bat for employees?

• Accessibility. Are plan reps quick to answer phone calls? Do they attend regularly scheduled meetings?

• Reports. Do you receive timely paid claim and utilization reports?

• Open enrollment. Did you receive effective support preparing for and conducting open enrollment events?

• Worker education. Do your staff members find the written and/or one-on-one services provided through the plan helpful in answering questions about managing specific chronic illnesss (like diabetes or depression)? Do you receive support in educating your staff members to make healthful lifestyle choices, like smoking cessation?

2. Choose a workable rating scale

There are two schools of thought when it comes to choosing  a rating method –  subjective or objective. Many benefit pros – specifically those from smaller firms – use a simple pass/fail or 1 to 5 score to rate their satisfaction.

Others create more elaborate, statistic-based ratings. One method –  take the vendor’s guarantees (e.g., addressing disputed claims within 3-5 company days) and then measure by percentage how often these goals are met.

These rating data may be obtained through quarterly performance reports, employee surveys, issue and complaint files and, for bigger plans, external audits.

3. Feedback causes improvement

It’s good practice to share your scorecard system with the vendor before meeting to review the results. Reason –  This lets you iron out any vendor questions about the review categories and scoring system.

Once that’s settled, you are able to meet to go over the numbers and prioritize the areas that need improvement. Many firms then add a new scorecard category – vendors’ followup.

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Health Promotion : Selecting a Health Promotion Corporation.

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

When staffing your health promotion program you need to consider whether to hire a wellness staff or contract with wellness specialists from outside your organization.

Small and medium size worksites don’t ordinarily have a wellness expert on staff. When your worksite is in this category, you’ll need to contract with providers outside your corporation.

Large corporations have a few choices. They can hire a staff solely for the health promotion program, they can contract with outside wellness providers, or they can use a combination of internal staff and outside providers.

When picking  a provider some key questions in the areas of staff, program structure, process, and effectiveness need to be addressed. Each of these key questions is discussed in the following sections.

Health Promotion Company Staff

Health professionals become wellness professionals when they are trained in the full range of wellness activities. Health Promotion professionals are generalists who come from a broad variety of backgrounds and schooling.

They may be nurses, dietitians, health educators, counselors, exercise physiologists, or have other backgrounds. But besides to their primary training, they know something about all wellness topics, including smoking, stress, exercise, and nutrition.

They also know how to engage and support people  in making and sustaining health improvements and have good people  skills.

Normally, wellness experts at worksites fall into three wide categories, wellness screeners, wellness counselors, and wellness instructors.

• Health Promotion screeners introduce workers to the program, take health measurements, collect health-related information, provide initial counseling, and help workers define for themselves what they need and want in a health promotion program.

• Health Promotion counselors work with staff members after the screening to help them develop and carry out a plan to reduce their risks and improve their health.

• Health Promotion instructors teach classes and minigroups on different health topics.

A health promotion program in a small business may be staffed by a single staff individuals who fills all three roles. Bigger worksites will use different individuals  to fill these roles.

When choosing  staff or choosing  among wellness corporations, ask the following questions –

• Do prospective staff members have a range of health backgrounds that will provide appropriate specialistise in the topics to be addressed?

• Have prospective employees functioned well as wellness screeners, wellness counselors, and/or wellness instructors?

• Will this staff include people  from the racial and ethnic backgrounds found in your employee population?

• Is each staff member comfortable with the range of backgrounds found in your staff member population, and able to communicate effectively with the various social and educational levels of your employees?

• Do employees have a warm, but specialist, counseling style when interacting with employees?

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Health Promotion : Does Your Corporation Support Physical Activity?

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

How does exercise fit into a full-time employee’s busy schedule? Often, it doesn’t.

One possible solution to this challenge is to make physical activity a part of the work day. Obviously, being active at work is beneficial for workers.

But corporations also benefit from having fit, energetic and healthy staff members who are more productive.

The challenges

Your job takes up a lot of your time. In addition to the hours you spend actually working, there’s the time required to get to and from work and take lunch and rest breaks during the work day.

In the end, there are a not many hours left over for the rest of your life. This work life imbalance is namely true for Alberta, where statistics show that we work exceptionally hard.

Many jobs today are sedentary, and many American Citizens drive to work. the pressures of work may also cause us to eat lunch at our desks and skip breaks.

Then, after work or on the weekends we juggle household chores, family responsibilities and social engagements.

Health Promotion Programs –  Get began on a workplace fitness program

Management plays a key role in creating a culture that promotes health. the leaders at your workplace influence the various policies and the informal or formal practices, and these policies and practices affect your attitude towards healthful active living.

Start by talking to your boss about the advantages of a healthy active workplace. the best way to ensure the success of a workplace fitness program is to have the management on side and cheering you on.

Ask your boss to consider taking these actions –

• Send a memo or message about the importance of health and healthful living that encourages staff to take an active break each day.

• Give for flexible work hours that help staff to be more physically active. for  instance, they could need to take a longer lunch break to attend an exercise class, making up the time by coming to work early or staying late.

• Make available a meeting room or other suitable office space for noon-hour yoga or exercise classes, and hire a teacher to lead them, or use videos.

If your boss agrees to support a workplace fitness program, don’t forget to say thanks.

You do not need an on-site health club

Only very big businesses can afford onsite fitness facilities such as exercise equipment or squash courts. Still, most businesss can take other low cost steps to support staff members who wish to become more active.

For example –

• Arrange for discounted fees for workers at a gym, recreation centeror YMCA facility.

• Install showers and a place to hang a towel. (Make certain the showers are cleaned regularly and that women who use them will feel secure.)

• Install bicycle racks or a locked enclosure that is safe, conveniently located and well lighted.

• Hold walking meetings and set up lunch-hour walking groups

• Make workers aware of safe and pleasant walking routes near the workplace, as well as nearby facilities that offer fitness programs (such as walking, swimming, running, yoga, stretching).

• Hire a qualified instructor to teach staff about health, fitness and how to become more active.

Any size and type of workplace can support staff members who wish to be physically active. It’s highly desirable to get management on side.

Even if your boss is not supportive, you can still find ways to get moving more. Make certain to set up activities for groups and person, and encourage your colleagues to join in.