Ceridian Introduces New Teen Weight Management Program
Program Helps Organizations Address Often Overlooked Cause of Rising Healthcare Costs: Managing Childhood Obesity
MINNEAPOLIS (March 12, 2008) – Ceridian LifeWorks, a leading provider of employee assistance programs (EAP) and health and productivity solutions, today announced the launch of its Ceridian Teen and Adolescent Weight Management Program.
The program partners teens and adolescents with a personal health coach for one year to help guide them through crucial health-related decision-making points. It focuses on helping them achieve the best outcomes at a time in their lives when they are learning to be self-reliant.
The Ceridian Teen and Adolescent Program operates under a goal-setting philosophy called SMART, which teaches participants to set Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely goals to help them obtain healthy eating, physical activity and other lifestyle habits, like reduced screen time, for the rest of their lives. Organizations that purchase the program provide teens with access to the following services:
* Scheduled outbound calls from the same health coach for 12 months
* Unlimited inbound calls through coach message service where coaches return calls within one business day
* Unlimited online health coaching
* 24/7 access to medically reviewed online content
Organizations are provided the following benefits:
* Detailed aggregate outcomes reporting on a quarterly basis
* Satisfaction survey at three months
* Protocol for parental consent for health coaching participation
* Referral protocol if screened positive for depression, anxiety or other emotional problems, including suicide contemplation
* Referral protocol if illicit drug use or physical, sexual, or emotional abuse is disclosed
“Our country’s childhood obesity epidemic is starting to hit organizations’ bottom lines,” said Ceridian LifeWorks senior vice president Zachary Meyer. “Most employers are not addressing this issue and as a result are seeing their health care costs go up due to an increasing number of physical and emotional, obesity-related issues among their employees’ children.”
According to Employee Benefit News, childhood obesity has tripled in the past two decades. This national epidemic has had a direct impact on health care costs. The average annual cost of health care for overweight people is 13.8 percent higher than for people at a healthy weight, and 37.3 percent higher for obese individuals.
Ceridian LifeWorks’ Meyer added, “By taking a proactive approach to addressing obesity among teens and young adults, organizations not only curb their own health care costs, but they also can help prevent this issue from becoming an even greater problem for the workforce of tomorrow.”
Source: Ceridian
