National business group on health announces winners

The National Business Group on Health today announced that the Honeywell Corporation, Union Pacific Railroad, and General Electric Energy have been awarded its President’s Award for their outstanding performance and commitment to providing high quality health care benefits to their employees.

Honeywell was awarded the President’s Health Benefits Communication Award for its HealthResource program. The President’s Health Improvement Award was given to GE Energy for its Diabetes at Work program, while Union Pacific Railroad received the President’s Healthy Weight, Healthy Lifestyles Award for its Health Track program.

With these awards, the Business Group honors and recognizes companies and organizations that are leading the way to provide excellent benefits and information and services to employees that will help moderate the growth in health care costs as well as improve quality of life and health, said Michael Davis, Chairman of the Board of National Business Group on Health and Vice President, Compensation, Benefits, and Corporate Human Resources at General Mills Inc.

Honeywell’s HealthResource program is an innovative and groundbreaking initiative, focused on improving health care quality through employee communication. Honeywell’s CEO strongly supports that all employees be informed and educated about the health care crisis, as well as the company’s strategy for providing affordable health benefits.

The HealthResource program empowers employees and dependents to make the right health care decisions at the point of care by providing them with best-in-class resources. Honeywell believes that the primary issues that exist with health care today - rising costs, variation in care, dissatisfaction, productivity - can be resolved faster and more effectively if employees are given the data and information they need to engage as active consumers in decisions relating to their care. In the first few months following the introduction of health care decision support tools, over 42,000 employees and family members began using the online resources available to them.

GE Energy’s Diabetes At Work program is designed to improve employee health status. To receive this award, the program had to meet three criteria: demonstrate decreased health risk and reduced medical cost; possess evidence-base design and, through on-going research, demonstrate impact on effectiveness of behavior change.

GE Energy designed and successfully implemented a modified Diabetes At Work for employees at risk for developing diabetes and heart disease. Through a voluntary Cardiovascular Risk Assessment and an on-site examination, employees with three of five symptoms of metabolic syndrome are invited to participate in a six-month program. Twenty-percent of the 35,000 employees are involved. Participating employees are achieving significant changes in their clinical status. Follow-up reviews indicated positive changes in blood pressure, high-density lipoproteins and triglycerides levels.

Union Pacific Railroad’s Health Track program aims to improve its employees’ physical and mental health through lifestyle change and risk reduction. Initiatives such as Union Pacific’s Reduce Obesity Now are part of Health Track. The company offers the program to 47,000 employees and has documented a 34 percent reduction in medical claim costs attributable to lifestyle issues over a 10-year period. In addition, Union Pacific has determined through analysis of its own data that certain health risks -- stress, overweight (in the 45 age category), tobacco use and perceived health status - are reliable predictors of safety incidents.

Distributed by HRmarketer.com