Health Insurance Blog

The United States has experienced the presence of corporate wellness programs for several years now. Despite that most employees display a peculiar trait of not relying on these programs despite employers offering varied kinds of benefits. Usually perks range from discounted prices at wellness centers (like gyms, spas etc.), cholesterol screenings at no extra cost and even free passes to special events like movie premieres and screenings. This approach does not do anything either for employees or their employers.

In recent times though, employers have actually waken up to the fact that ‘extras’ on wellness programs cannot really be the key to draw employees to pay better attention to their health and living. This has prompted them to take more serious measures where employees either participate in wellness programs or feel the crunch on their paychecks. Incentive- based programs slap heavy punishment on members if they fail to act in the interest of their health and the interest of the organization. Penalty can be quite high and can be a deterrent to erratic employee behavior concerning health and wellness.

The reason behind the employers’ new way of viewing and reviewing corporate wellness is simple- they want healthier employees to enhance work atmosphere and overall productivity. Honestly this is no unfair demand because healthier residents will make a healthier America. At least that’s how a new study sees it. According to that if programs focus more on prevention and less on cure, overall health costs will be halved in one sweep.

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The worst is here. Most babies born in the US are supposed to be much below what they should be in terms of weight. According to experts, in fact, every baby born less than 5.5 pounds faces the risk of getting handicapped with the progress of time and worse, might not even live upto that age. Despite a rise in the rate of longevity and better health amongst teenagers, it is alarming to see well- being amongst babies drop so dramartically. The trend, though, is not all that new. American babies have faced the same predicament for the last 40 years and it has been just getting worse with every passing year.

Statistics are also proof of the fact that the reports are not untrue. When child well-being is viewed comprehensively, United States hits rock- bottom and presents no competition for its counterparts. In the comprehensive child- wellbeing category, it ranks as low as 32nd out of the 33 countries reviewed. What is more disturbing is the fact that the power of industrialization backs all 33. And when it comes to the annual count of underweight infants, United States stands pathetically at the 29th position.

This lack of child well- being comes as a shock when countries like the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark and Sweden are seen ranking better. Underweight infants and sickly babies pose a distinct threat to the country’s future and should be enough food for worry at the moment. The sooner something is done about this, the better.

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Despite the prevalence of prescriptions everywhere in America, elderlies fail to get what they deserve- care for osteoporosis. This is a rather sorry state of affairs since osteoporosis or bone degeneration occurs in almost all aging adults. According to a recent survey a little over 11% of elderlies have received adequate care after being admitted to a nursing home for fractures. Which means about 90% of them still are not given necessary medication despite experts stating the need for medicinal drugs beyond calcium and Vitamin D.

The Brigham and Women’s Hospital had researchers claiming that most nursing homes have female patients who have arthritis and the percentage is as whopping as 80%. This problem is perhaps a peculiarity with the nursing home structure of care giving. This has further been proved by the researchers’ study based on intervening years between 1995 and 2004. While this decade saw a rise in the use of osteoporosis medicine overall, the statistics got worse in case of nursing homes.

Talking of improvement, osteoporosis medication found its place of pride only between the years of 1995 and 2001 after which there was a steady decline. And the situation only seems to be getting worse with each passing day with patients receiving no treatment at all (a revelation made by a new study).

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