Event: HRForum, Health and Wellness: Trends in Employer Sponsored Benefit Programs

According to the SHRM website, if a company correctly implements a wellness program using thorough, company-specific research and planning, the program can be a “win-win” for both the employer and the employees. Wellness programs can benefit employers by: lowering health care costs, reducing absenteeism, reducing workers’ compensation and disability-related costs, reducing injuries and improving employee morale and loyalty. This forum is designed to provide students an understanding of how, as direct benefit costs continue to escalate, for both the employer and employee (increased premiums, copays, high deductible plans), companies are being required to be more thoughtful and creative about benefit offerings.  As a result, many companies are increasing existing or implementing new Wellness programs as part of the company-sponsored benefits. The keynote speaker will talk about trends in wellness programs and the panelists will provide insight into their individual company [...]

Be Well’s employees aren’t all marathoners, but top small company practices what it preaches

Michelle Jarboe McFee for The Plain Dealer SOLON, Ohio -- Eileen Herman spent years researching diseases and working with patients struggling with diabetes or recuperating from heart and lung problems. Now she's focused on prevention instead of treatment, as the nursing director for Be Well Solutions, a small Northeast Ohio company that stands to grow as employers try to tamp down rising health-care costs and comply with the Affordable Care Act. A physician-owned company, Be Well Solutions offers health screenings, risk assessments and wellness programs to a broad range of corporate clients. The 50-person business emerged as the top-ranked small business in this year's Top Workplaces in Northeast Ohio survey. In May, Herman and much of Be Well's staff traveled to health fairs in North Carolina, Arizona, Illinois and Massachusetts. They tested workers' blood pressure, cholesterol and other vital statistics, [...]

In Good Company: Grand Slam

Heather Maurer for Wright State University Wright State University Alumnus Ronald Golovan serves as team physician for the Cleveland Indians, cares for entertainers appearing at the House of Blues, Blossom Music Center, and other Cleveland venues, serves as medical director for a corporate wellness firm, and sees patients in his private practice. As a Cleveland-based private practice internist, Ronald Golovan, M.D., (’89) has spent 22 years treating professional baseball players, musicians, actors, and corporate executives. However, he is quick to point out that some of the most satisfying moments of his career have come from his involvement in the health care of his more typical internal medicine patients. “I won’t lie. Taking care of professional athletes and musicians is great, but I still love going to work every day and seeing my regular office patients,” said Golovan, who received the 2013 Outstanding [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Electronic Cigarettes: Our Position

Background: Electronic inhalers (EI’s) are devices that are gaining enormous popularity in the US and the world. The units go by a number of different names: electronic cigarettes (or e-cigarettes) electronic vaping devices personal vaporizers (PV) electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) These devices use a liquid solution (juice) which is heated to vaporize and then inhaled. Some of the liquids contain nicotine, while some merely release flavored vapor.  Nicotine levels in the liquids vary between preparations.  Tobacco is not used in e-cigarettes, though tobacco companies are investing heavily in EI’s. E-cigarettes are often designed to mimic traditional smoking implements, such as cigarettes or pipes, in their use and/or appearance, although more and more devices are designed not to imitate them, in an attempt to develop a different culture of user. In a recent edition of the Medical Letter® (Volume 54, [...]

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 [...]