Boston – November 1, 2011 – Employee wellness experts from The Babcock & Wilcox Company (NYSE:BWC) (B&W), Caesars Entertainment and other employers shared insights and results from their health management strategies in conjunction with Take Care Health Systems (TCHS) a subsidiary of Walgreens during the National Business Group on Health’s (NBGH) National Conference on Health, Productivity and Human Capital last week. Each employer works with TCHS to offer employees access to workplace based health facilities which serve as a central element of a comprehensive employee wellness strategy.
During a panel discussion employee wellness leaders representing businesses that collectively employ more than 120,000 workers, discussed a number of emerging themes in employer sponsored health care including:
- Investing in proactive and preventive care for employees to improve the health of employees while mitigating the trend of rising employer health care costs.
- Utilizing workplace based health centers to effectively prevent and treat chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes before they pose significant and costly health risks to employees.
- Designing benefits to incent employees to utilize high-quality and affordable care options such as retail clinics as well as health systems and health care providers with proven track records of achieving exceptional patient outcomes.
“At B&W, our wellnessstrategy offers comprehensive and convenient health services to our workforce while at the same time reducing our costs,” said Daniel L. Helman, B&W corporate director, environmental, health and safety. “By prioritizing the health of our employees we’ve done right by our business and even more importantly we’ve done right by the tens of thousands of B&W team members who depend on us for access to tools that will allow them to be and stay well.”
B&W wellness strategy incorporates benefit design, health education and worksite health centers managed by TCHS. Investments in employee health and wellness have yielded significant return, effectively reversing the trend of rising health care spend. Health management programs at Caesars Entertainment and other TCHS clients have also yielded significant financial and health outcome based results.
“From small and mid-sized companies to the nation’s largest employers, businesses are weighing rising health and pharmacy costs with a desire to best meet the needs of their employees,” said Paul VanDeventer, Walgreens divisional vice president and host of the panel discussion. “Through our network of workplace health centers, community pharmacies, retail clinics and other health care assets, Walgreens is working to make sure employers don’t need to choose between the health of their workforce and the health of their bottom line. Our relationships with health care innovators such as B&W and Caesars bring new ideas and best practices to the forefront and show that a healthier workforce can help drive the best results for today’s leading employers and employees.”
Walgreens, through its subsidiary Take Care Health Systems, currently manages more than 350 workplace based health centers with companies across the country.
About Walgreens
Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) is the nation's largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2011 sales of $72 billion. The company operates 7,779 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Each day, Walgreens provides nearly 6 million customers the most convenient, multichannel access to consumer goods and services and trusted, cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services and advice in communities across America. Walgreens scope of pharmacy services include retail, specialty, infusion, medical facility and mail service, along with respiratory services. These services improve health outcomes and lower costs for payers including employers, managed care organizations, health systems, pharmacy benefit managers and the public sector. Take Care Health Systems is a Walgreens subsidiary that is the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the country.
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