Event: Solon Chamber of Commerce January Luncheon Meeting

Speaker Bill Frankel "Sticking to Your New Year's Resolution" Does your New Year’s resolution include weight loss and getting healthy? Keeping this #1  resolution is hard and most of us fail before we even get started. Every day we are bombarded with mixed information on how to lose weight, which exercise is best, and what foods pack the most punch. Even if you do not run marathons and eat vegan you can be healthy. Bill Frankel will give you the straight talk on ways to get on track---today---to a healthier you. Bill Frankel is the Executive Vice President of Be Well Solutions, a physician-owned, comprehensive wellness company.  Mr. Frankel provides wellness services and organizational consulting for companies throughout the United States. His areas of expertise include stress management, sustained wellness, exercise and nutrition, team building, organizational change, difficult personalities, effective communication, and leadership [...]

Wellness Warriors

Timothy Magaw for Crain's Cleveland Be Well Solutions, a Solon-based wellness consultant, and Movable, the Brecksville-based makers of the colorful MOVband products, have joined forces. The two companies said they have partnered on Be Well's largest client to date, Kent State University. The hope is that Be Well ultimately will be able to offer MOVbands — the colorful plastic wristbands designed to help people track how physically active they are — to all of their clients. With the partnership, the MOVband technology will be integrated into Be Well's web portal. This will allow Kent State employees, for instance, to upload and track their activity. Working with the university's health services, Be Well will hold health fairs on all of Kent State's campuses, and hold meeting to introduce university employees to the program. Be Well's web portal will provide employees with a [...]

Be Well Solutions Currently Assists More Organizations with the BWC Wellness Grant than Any Other Wellness Company in Ohio.

Ohio employers wanting to improve the health and wellness of their workers can benefit from the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation’s newest program, the Workplace Wellness Grant Program (WWGP). It provides funding to assist employers in establishing training and programs to reduce health risk factors specific to their employees. BWC established WWGP to study the effect of a wellness program in the workplace on bringing down incidence and cost of accidents and illnesses. The goal is to control the escalating cost of workers' compensation claims through addressing health risk factors. The WWGP's collateral goals are also to reduce health-care costs for employers, as well as improve the health of the workforce. The BWC has established this program to meet the challenges of obesity, rising incidence of chronic diseases and the aging workforce. This program will assist employers with the creation and [...]

2014 Best Places to Work: New Hire Perspectives

Simone Jasper for Inside Business Magazine THE WELLNESS WARRIOR: Dani Palus shares Be Well Solutions’ passion for healthy living.  Hire Date: May 2013 WHY IT’S A GREAT PLACE TO WORK: Be Well Solutions offers comprehensive wellness services while also promoting the wellness of its own employees with such benefits as discounted gym memberships and fresh fruit and smoothies served in the office.  LIKE MINDS: At Be Well Solutions, Palus found co-workers who share her passion for healthy living. She developed an interest in preventive health care in high school, when her mom and aunt both died from cancer within months of each other. “Preventive screenings were so important,” Palus says. “If we had been able to do something earlier, we could have avoided that.” FRUIT CRAVINGS: The Independence native graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in human nutrition in 2008. She [...]

How the Health Care Law is Making a Difference for the People of Ohio

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Because of the Affordable Care Act, the 86% of Ohioans who have insurance have more choices and stronger coverage than ever before. And for the 14% of Ohioans who don’t have insurance, or Ohio families and small businesses who buy their coverage but aren’t happy with it, a new day is just around the corner. Soon, the new online Health Insurance Marketplace will provide families and small businesses who currently don’t have insurance, or are looking for a better deal, a new way to find health coverage that fits their needs and their budgets. Open enrollment in the Marketplace starts Oct 1, with coverage starting as soon as Jan 1, 2014.  But Ohio families and small business can visit HealthCare.gov right now to find the information they need prepare for open enrollment. The health care [...]

Administrator chosen for wellness program

Sue Reid for Solon Times   City council’s finance committee approved preparing legislation last week to accept the proposal of Be Well Solutions, a Solon company, as third-party administrator of an employee wellness program. The cost to Be Well Solutions for the one-year contract is $25,850. The city interviewed five companies of 10 proposals it received, with Be Well Solutions believed to be the “best fit” for the city and its culture, Human Resources Coordinator Jessica Vest told the committee. The fee proposal, which is an estimate, is based on the number of expected participants and includes biometric screenings, health risk assessment, coaching, incentive tracking and on-site presentations, among other services. The hope is to expand the program to cover all the city’s 283 employees and their spouses, Ms. Vest said. “Wellness programs have been gaining popularity over the last [...]

“Reasonable Alternatives” – Finalized Outcome Based Wellness Program Rules; effective health insurance plan year on or after January 1, 2014

As part of health care reform, wellness programs that provide incentives based on specific health metrics (i.e. BMI, cholesterol, etc.) will be required to offer “reasonable alternative standards” to employees who do not meet the initial requirements. The final rules also increase the maximum dollar amount of rewards or surcharges to 30% of the total premium cost of health care coverage (up from 20%) and up to 50% for incentives tied to smoking prevention or reduction programs. * Reasonable alternative standards: Employees must be given an opportunity to qualify for the reward if they fail to meet the initial standard. For example, an employer could charge higher premium contributions to employees or spouses who have a Body Mass Index (BMI) in excess of 30. Therefore, the employer would have to offer an alternative means for participants to avoid the surcharge. [...]

Wellness@Work | 2013 Winners

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History Special Congratulations to TMW, a long-standing client of Be Well Solutions, and to each and every organization that has put forth a dedicated effort to implementing a successful wellness program. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, with sponsor COSE, and partners Gallagher Benefit Services Inc. and Sibson Consulting, honored 14 area businesses for their workplace wellness initiatives. Representatives from the winning companies were recognized during an awards dinner March 21 at the Museum. More than 150 guests attended the awards ceremony. The awards honor companies that have demonstrated excellence in workplace wellness. The winning companies created programs to improve their employees' health, work/personal life balance, education, quality of life and sustainability in the workplace. The Wellness@Work Awards program was developed to help fulfill the Museum's mission of fostering health and leadership to a sustainable [...]

We have partnered with GlobalFit!

GlobalFit is a leading provider of benefits for healthy living. Readily accessible through Be Well Solutions, GlobalFit’s broad selection of programs, products and services have been expressly designed to create a healthier world. Since 1992, GlobalFit's signature offering has been its gym network, the largest of its kind. The network now includes thousands of respected fitness centers, from well-known chains to independent facilities. GlobalFit also offers these convenient, affordable options: Exercise On Demand: easy-to-follow videos and community support Zumba® DVDs at a special low price Home fitness equipment from Total Gym® The Nutrisystem® weight-loss program and Dr. Will Clower's Mediterranean Wellness program. The GlobalFit Virtual Meal Planner: online meal planning for balanced nutrition Be Well Solutions has made it easier for you to reach out to GlobalFit directly. GlobalFit helps make it easy and affordable to look and feel your best. Choose [...]

Obama administration continues moving forward to implement health care law by releasing final rules on employment-based wellness programs

Laura McGinnis for the United States Department of Labor WASHINGTON - The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and the Treasury today issued final rules on employment-based wellness programs. The final rules support workplace health promotion and prevention as a means to reduce the burden of chronic illness, improve health and limit growth of health care costs, while ensuring that individuals are protected from unfair underwriting practices that could otherwise reduce benefits based on health status. The final rules continue to support participatory wellness programs, which generally are available without regard to an individual's health status. These include programs that reimburse for the cost of membership in a fitness center; that provide a reward to employees for attending a monthly, no-cost health education seminar; or that reward employees who complete a health risk assessment, without requiring them to take [...]