“Most workplace wellness activities today have failed,” Nebeyou Abebe, senior director for health and well-being at foodservice and facilities management company Sodexo North America, said at this week’s MedCity CONVERGE conference in Philadelphia.
Employees simply do not follow through on employer-sponsored wellness programs, Abebe explained. He said that 84 percent of large employers offer wellness services, but only 4-8 percent of employees in such programs are engaged in programs designed to improve their own health.
Behavioral Health, Interoperability and eConsent: Meeting the Demands of CMS Final Rule Compliance
In a webinar on April 16 at 1pm ET, Aneesh Chopra will moderate a discussion with executives from DocuSign, Velatura, and behavioral health providers on eConsent, health information exchange and compliance with the CMS Final Rule on interoperability.
Community engagement seems to be part of the answer.
“At Sodexo, we understand that we can’t do it alone,” Abebe said during a “fireside chat” with Breaking Media healthcare vice president Chris Seper. The Gaithersburg, Maryland-based North American division of French company Sodexo relies on strategic partners. “We need to work with community-based organizations because we all know health is local,” Abebe said.
“We engage with our employees and consumers on the front line every day,” added Abebe, who previously worked in public health in Louisiana.
For example, Sodexo is working with the Central Florida YMCA Association in the Orlando, Florida, area to get motivational and actionable messages in front of individuals most in need of health improvement. The Y gets patrons to sign up for text messages that disseminate evidence-based health information, invitations to 30-day health challenges and reminders to attend biometric screening events and monthly workshops on healthy living.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“Text messages are just great reminders,” Abebe said. “For me, we are relying on the low-tech.”
He noted that a lot of people download apps and then forget to use them, but text messages tend to be read right away. “It’s a really, really powerful medium to connect with your audience,” he said.
