CEO Council Calls for Greater Focus on Wellness
The council's new report offers details on how the companies have improved employees' health and the U.S. health care system as a whole.
A recent report from the CEO Council on Health and Innovation—a panel that includes the CEOs of Coca-Cola, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, Johnson & Johnson, Aetna, Bank of America, and other well-known organizations—shows how their companies are working to improve their employees’ health and the U.S. health care system. They issued it as a call to action to encourage the business community to focus on wellness and health in the same ways.
More than 221,000 Bank of America employees and spouses/partners completed wellness activities in 2014, and 96,000 of its employees enrolled in the 2013 physical activity challenge, for example. Walgreen Co. is lowering barriers to preventative care by offering vaccines and biometric screening free of charge to employees and also is working to raise awareness of the importance of vaccinations among the U.S. public.
The report calls on U.S. employers to take specific actions on nutrition and physical activity, tobacco cessation, emotional and behavioral health, and chronic disease management, and it recommends a menu of immediate, near-term, and long-term employer actions.