Arizona Mexico Commission Goes Well
The annual plenary session of the Arizona-Mexico Commission wrapped up last night with some important health events. We signed a Cooperative Agreement with the Secreteria de Salud Publica in Sonora to educate people on both sides of the border about the importance of buckling up children and infants. In the last Child Fatality Review report – there were 70 children [...]
Our “Interim Compensation Strategy”
One of the elements of last year’s state personnel reform is the ability to reward staff who do great work and have tangible results to prove it. Our first opportunity to take advantage of the incentives are coming this month with something called our “interim compensation strategies”. It’s basically the first stop in the road for applying incentives called spot bonuses and meritorious [...]
Men’s Health Week Time to Think about Our Health
This week is Men’s Health Week - the worldwide event happens every year before Father’s Day calling attention to the issues that affect men’s health. Many groups take the opportunity to talk about men’s health – we should be thinking about our health every week. The top health issues that impact men’s health are also some of the easiest issues [...]
PE, Math and English Go Hand in Hand
The Institute of Medicine just released a new report that recommends schools make physical education a core subject, just like math and English. According to the report… 44% of school administrators reported cutting significant time from PE classes in order to devote more time to reading and math over the last 10 years. There’s pressure to increase classroom time for standardized test [...]
Employee Wellness Standards Locked In
The Fed’s issued their final regulations for worksite wellness programs under the Affordable Care Act this week. The final rules are designed to incentivize workplaces to develop and execute health promotion programs. The goal is to improve health and wellness among workers and to limit growth of health care costs moving forward. The regulations outline standards what they call “health-contingent [...]
Smokers Cost Employers $6K More
A new Ohio State University study found smokers cost businesses about $6,000 more than nonsmokers every year. The researchers used the cost of increased absenteeism, lost productivity, smoke breaks and health care to reach the $6K/year figure – not surprisingly, smoke breaks account for the biggest share of the cost. More and more businesses are creating stronger worksite wellness programs. Arizona, for example, has a great benefit in place [...]