Products June 5, 2012

Aetna Introduces Healthy Commitments Program

June 5, 2012 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – Aetna introduced a wellness program for public and labor employers with fewer than 3,000 employees.
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Aetna Healthy Commitments has resources and incentives to help improve employees’ health and well-being while also aiming to reduce health care expenses for employers.

Aetna guarantees that employers will save 2% on their health care trends when their employees meet minimum participation levels. The company will also provide employers with access to additional incentives to encourage participation.

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“[T]he Aetna Healthy Commitments program saves money for employers by helping their employees improve their health,” said Kim Keck, head of Aetna’s middle markets business.

The program has tiers, enhanced and premier.

The enhanced package provides employees with worksite biometric screenings and member incentives. It includes Aetna Health Connections Get Active! Shape Up Challenge, a program that incorporates social networking to engage employees through a fitness challenge.

The premier package has the features of the enhanced package, plus Healthy Lifestyle Coaching. Through this program, coaches provide one-to-one support to employees, targeting behavioral changes in a number of areas, such as weight management, tobacco cessation, stress management, nutrition, physical activity and preventive health.

Benefits June 5, 2012

Employees Know Less than Employers Realize About Health Benefits

June 5, 2012 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – A gap exists between what employers think their employees know about health and wellness benefits and what employees actually know, a survey found.
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While more than half of employers believe employees have a good understanding of their benefits and how they can participate, only 41% of employees say they had a good awareness of available programs, according to Virgin HealthMiles. Fewer than half say they understand how to participate. “If employees aren’t aware of their employers’ programs and how to participate, health behaviors won’t change,” said Chris Boyce, chief executive of Virgin HealthMiles. “This is a traditional problem with how employee health and wellness has historically been done. If organizations don’t get this right, they won’t get the business impact they seek from their employee health investments.”

One impact of health investments is seen in recruitment and retention. More than 89% of employees say an employer’s range of health and wellness benefits is either very or somewhat important in their choice of employer.

Despite the human resources advantage, just 9% of employers have adopted consumer-driven communication channels to promote their employee health programs. Instead, employers use traditional methods such as periodic e-mails, intranets and websites, on-site posters and signage, newsletters or company publications and health fairs or on-site events.

With these methods of promotion, employees are confused about the benefits available to them. Employers usually offer smoking cessation, health reimbursement accounts and physical activity programs. However, when asked if their companies offered those benefits, employees said, “I don’t know.”

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In addition, the survey found only 36% of employers say they get the information they need to make practical decisions about their strategies, and just 13% are very satisfied with their provider’s ability to help measure the impact of their investments. This lack of insight affects service provider satisfaction levels: only 16% of employers are very satisfied with their provider’s impact on helping employees change behaviors.

To help drive employees in their plans, more than two-thirds of employers say they offer incentives. Nearly 39% align incentives for a combination of program participation and outcomes; 26% align incentives for program participation only and 2% for outcomes only. Survey results show incentives work: 58% of employees said incentives are a very important factor in their participation.

The survey was conducted by e-mail April 25 to May 11. Employers were surveyed by Workforce Management magazine, which contacted 772 employers across the U.S. Participating employees were 6,756 members of Virgin HealthMiles. 

A copy of the survey is available here.  

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