Healthcare continues to evolve, and with that evolution are changes not just in employee benefits but in how healthcare issues impact the workplace. In Business Magazine has reached out to leaders with expertise in the healthcare and benefits industries for their insights on trending matters to help employers stay on top of what’s important. Inside View of the Pandemic … [More]
Health & Wellness Goes Beyond Nutrition & Exercise … and It’s a Growth Industry
Health & Wellness Goes Beyond Nutrition & Exercise … and It’s a Growth Industry There is a shift toward more interest around health and wellness in our society, which is serving as an opportunity to make the future of work more beneficial for both employees and employers. Finding ways to better serve employees by making them healthier and happier — whether it’s with … [More]
Inside View of the Pandemic – and Tips to Nurture Employee Mental Health
As a former ICU nurse in a Level One Trauma Center, who worked on the front lines during COVID-19, I can speak to many lessons learned that we need to remember — because the pandemic is not going away. The pandemic brought to light that work does not always need to be performed within the confines of an office. Although there will always be a time and a place for in-person … [More]
Amplifying Virtual Care and Mental Health Services
The biggest change in healthcare during the past three years of the pandemic is the exponential growth in virtual care — 76% of people are now interested in using telehealth vs 11% in 2019. One in three visits will be virtual in the future — our customers recognize the convenience of accessing care from their smartphones or computers wherever, whenever they need it without … [More]
Positive Strategies Combat the Pandemic’s Impacts
Without a doubt, the past few years have been challenging for many businesses and their employees here in Arizona. Many have dealt with strains and changes due to the coronavirus pandemic, such as moving to a remote work environment, keeping employees healthy and happy, and maintaining culture and connectivity. We are in a time where flexibility, work-life balance, and mental, … [More]
Transforming Healthcare with Value-Based Care and Health Equity
Employers continue to struggle with healthcare costs and how much benefit they can provide for the dollar. It comes down to the quality of the care that's provided to their employees and the ability to easily access high-quality, high-value care. We are seeing a few major trends converging in the healthcare industry today. First is the shift to value-based care (VBC), which … [More]
Make Employees Better Healthcare Consumers in a Holistic Landscape
The past two-plus years have vastly changed the world of healthcare and employee benefits. We’ve had to adopt — and adapt to — new technologies and ways of operating. Specifically related to healthcare, one of the biggest changes has been around education and steerage. Businesses have deployed apps, telehealth services, concierge-type offerings and other solutions to educate … [More]
Innovate with VDPC and Overlay Plans
As a means to reduce rising healthcare costs, innovative solutions are rising to the surface. One such solution is known as virtual direct primary care (VDPC). This has been one of our largest initiatives over the past 12 months as the rules around virtual medicine have expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this model, physicians, pediatricians and internists charge a … [More]
Support the Whole Employee – Including Quality of Life
We’ve seen an almost overnight shift in the way people work and a shift in the balance of power from employers to employees. This is especially true in hard-hit industries like healthcare, retail and hospitality, where the business is the people and without whom there is no ability to meet the customer’s needs. To attract and retain employees, businesses are required to … [More]
How Blue Zones Can Transform a Community
Communities throughout the United States partner with Blue Zones to promote well-being by making lasting changes to policies and infrastructure where people spend the most time so that healthy choices are easier. The term “Blue Zones” comes from areas around the world where people live measurably longer and better-quality lives and is rooted in the explorations and research … [More]
Kim Shepard, Cigna
Healthcare remains a top concern for employers and employees, but the elements involved continue to evolve as healthcare itself advances. The healthcare industry, for instance, is playing an increasingly immense role in working with the business community. The pandemic has demonstrated the importance of prioritizing both the physical and mental health of the nation’s … [More]
Five e-Commerce ERP Integrations Improve Business Performance
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems now hold a prominent place in the tech stack of any enterprise, enabling organizations to consolidate data from different sources and thereby control and optimize various internal business processes. According to the 2021 ERP Report from Panorama Consulting Group, 96% of enterprises that implement ERP solutions report improvements in … [More]
Messaging a Warm Reception
We all know that if there is one set of instructions and five people listening to those instructions, it’s a virtual certainty that different people will perceive and interpret those instructions differently. Said more plainly, the information will be received differently. The reason leadership communication is so difficult is leaders can expect the number of people they … [More]
Fresh Cravings to Salsabrate™ Goodness
Collaboration is among the most powerful methods to unite communities and make positive change possible. When Mike Parker and his family launched Next Phase Enterprises in 1995 and FoodStory Brands in 2015, they elevated standards and put purpose in focus. While Next Phase specializes in sales and marketing of food and beverages to merchants such as Walmart and Sam’s Club, … [More]
Will Rudeness Slam the Upcoming Tourist Season?
A national survey recently asked residents in the 30 largest metro areas to rate their cities in a way that could give potential tourists a glimpse of what to expect if they decide to visit there. It asked them to evaluate the rudeness levels of their cities to give travelers a sense of what kind of attitudes they might encounter. Phoenix did not fare well in the Preply … [More]
Environmental Health & Safety Considerations for Business Operations
Comprehensive U.S. laws to protect the environment and worker health and safety (collectively EHS laws) date from the 1970s and 1980s, with numerous state or industry-specific antecedents. Most of those original laws have since been amended or expanded in the 1990s and beyond, the most recent being the 2016 revision to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA, which, despite its … [More]
What Is Quantitative Intuition™ and How Do We Use It?
Quantitative intuition™ (QI)—the combination of data and analytics with Intuition—might sound like an oxymoron at first, but it is actually the key to effective decision-making. Simply put, QI is the ability to make decisions with incomplete information via precision questioning, contextual analysis, and synthesis to see the situation as a whole. So, what is Intuition? In … [More]
Tumultuous Economy Challenges on Companies’ Consumer Relations
A potential worldwide recession may be on the horizon. Additionally, buyer priorities are changing in customer services and the overall customer experience. How will a tumultuous economic period such as this one impact the customer service industries as a whole? As we see the pandemic period ending and a potential worldwide recession on the horizon, we are starting to see … [More]