Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona recently launched Get Fit. Don’t Quit, a health and wellness program as part of its mission to make Arizonans healthier. BCBSAZ teamed with fitness icon Jake “Body By Jake” Steinfeld in this effort to empower Arizonans to live a healthier lifestyle. The program is built around the idea that small steps lead to big payoffs, and shows people fun, … [More]
Businesses Gain when They Motivate Their Workforce to ‘Move It’
For decades, we’ve known that increased activity leads to an overall healthier lifestyle. In recent years this mentality has crept into our workday, too. For managers, the struggle becomes how to encourage our workforce to get up and take fitness breaks when our ultimate focus should be on productivity and meeting business objectives between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 … [More]
Crossroads Launches Franchise Program to Expand Substance Abuse Treatment
Every day, the Crossroads admissions office in Phoenix is overflowing with people who are often camping out overnight on the front lawn to get a place in line to be admitted for substance abuse. Founded in 1960 in Phoenix, Crossroads has grown to be one of the largest residential and outpatient substance abuse treatment programs in the United States, serving more than 2,500 … [More]
BCBSAZ Program Produces Cost Savings, Improved Health
Change Healthcare and ACO Partner™ recently announced results for the first complete plan year of its novel shared savings program with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona. Participating providers reported a 26.3-percent lower 30-day readmission rate and 28.1-percent lower all-cause readmission rate than their non-participant cohort. They also reported 20 percent fewer admissions … [More]
Oral Care: Gentle, Vegan
The oral care products from Rowpar Pharmaceuticals serve not only the general consumer but those with special needs as well. ClōSYS is its innovative oral healthcare line, with products that are alcohol-free, sulfate-free and pH balanced. Says James Ratcliff, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Rowpar, “We are pleased to know that our products can be used by patients undergoing … [More]
Offering Ongoing Support beyond Insurance
Scottsdale Recovery Center recently launched its Lifetime Therapy, designed to be an affordable addiction aftercare program for clients to receive continual treatment for life. This revolutionary one-of-a-kind program helps those patients conquer common life stressors that could otherwise trigger a relapse. Explaining that it isn’t uncommon for insurers to treat the minimum … [More]
New System Lessens Need for Amputation
More than 200 million people worldwide, including 8.5 million Americans, suffer from Peripheral Artery Disease, leading causes of which include smoking, diabetes and obesity . In the U.S. and Europe alone, PAD is responsible for approximately 240,000 amputations every year — and nearly one-quarter of these patients die within 30 days and almost half within a year of their … [More]
Predictability and Affordability in Healthcare Coverage
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona recently launched an administrative services solution with the potential of delivering more predictability and affordability for businesses that prefer a self-funded model for their health benefits. This new Balanced Funding solution allows qualifying businesses with 15 or more enrolled employees to pay a fixed monthly amount — which … [More]
Is an Association Plan the Answer?
Competition and choice were two promises of the Affordable Care Act that have largely been unfulfilled. Will Association Health Plans be the flavor of the month and quickly vanish like the healthcare co-ops, or will they create a viable pathway to lower cost, more administratively efficient health insurance? Health Plan Associations have the opportunity to be nimbler than a … [More]
Glucose-Monitoring Leader Expands in Mesa
With demand for Dexcom’s newest product soaring and the company’s stock price at an all-time high, the leader in continuous glucose monitoring for people with diabetes has begun hiring to fill more than 100 competitive-wage jobs at its manufacturing facility in Mesa, which currently employs over 400 people, and will continue to hire throughout 2018 with the likelihood of more … [More]
Valley Acupuncture Franchise Expands
Scottsdale-based Modern Acupuncture™, a franchise concept transforming the alternative medicine market and acupuncture industry, has opened a clinic in Mesa — the fourth location to open in the Valley and the 19th to open across the nation; at least 15 locations are slated for the Phoenix metro area. Modern Acupuncture Dana Park’s 1,200-square-foot clinic features 11 … [More]
Strengthening Lung Health Institute’s Advisory Board
Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., neuroscientist and tenured associate professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine, is the newest member of the Lung Health Institute’s advisory board. Responsible for shedding light on scientific findings in academic literature and how those findings could potentially evolve research and clinical practices at … [More]
Can Teletherapy Help Your People and Your Bottom Line?
Mental health has been propelled into the national spotlight. As we overcome national tragedies and household names share their mental and emotional struggles, the sobering truth is that people from all walks of life and backgrounds are affected — and that access to the right care is critical. Employers are in a unique position to address behavioral and mental health care, … [More]
Rent Your Genetic Code
Seeking to incentivize individuals to share their genetic code information, Nebula Genomics and Longenesis have joined in an exclusive collaboration. Nebula Genomics is a San Francisco-based company co-founded by genomics pioneer George Church, Ph.D., that is using blockchain to build a marketplace for genomic and clinical data, and Longenesis is a Hong Kong-based partnership … [More]
Caregiving Service Benefits Employees, Employers
There’s a silent crisis affecting one of every five working adults across all genders, races and classes: the challenge of caring for an aging or sick loved one, such as a parent with dementia or child with autism. As employers provide programs to support employees bringing their best selves to work, the caregiving struggle is often overlooked. Wellthy provides modern, … [More]
Boost Employee Well-Being Programs
An increasing number of companies are implementing well-being programs to help their employees live healthier lives, reduce healthcare costs, and improve employee productivity and satisfaction. A recent employer survey by Willis Towers Watson found that 72 percent of U.S. companies “aim to improve their health and well-being strategies and programs over the next three years … [More]
Meetings that Work – and Work Out
It’s been said that “sitting is the new smoking” and a recent study revealed that those who sit without moving for more than two hours at a time during regular waking hours have a higher mortality rate than those who don’t. Wellness programs have become a popular way of addressing this. But imagine if company meetings provided teams with the opportunity to address and achieve … [More]
Pooled Approach to Healthcare Coverage
The Main Street program that Holmes Murphy started in 2014 to offer captive insurance programs for businesses with more than 50 employees was expanded earlier this year to target small businesses with 10–50 employees. The new program is not, actually, a captive but it works similarly to the original program by pooling together businesses to offer the best possible … [More]
