The Weight of the Nation
It’s not often that you hear us encouraging you to watch television, but we’re making a special exception because HBO is airing a 4-part documentary series next week about America’s obesity epidemic and it looks really, really good. Maybe you can watch it while you’re on the treadmill or stationary bike. Here’s the trailer:
Parts 1 and 2 of the series, titled The Weight of the Nation, air on Monday at 8 pm, with Parts 3 and 4 airing at the same time the next day. The first film, CONSEQUENCES, examines the scope of the obesity epidemic. The second, CHOICES, reveals what science has shown about how to lose weight, maintain weight loss and prevent weight gain. The third, CHILDREN IN CRISIS, documents the damage obesity is doing to our nation’s children. The fourth film, CHALLENGES, examines the major driving forces causing the obesity epidemic.
The series couldn’t come out at a better time. A recent study reported in the Journal of Health Economics found that obesity adds $190 billion a year in health costs. One surprise in that study was the discovery that the costs of obesity exceed those of smoking.
There is a silver lining to the obesity epidemic, however. It can be overcome! Our clinicians work with patients and help guide them on exercise and healthy eating plans that WILL shed the weight. We have more than a few success stories of patients who’ve lost more than 100 pounds! It works!
To learn more about the documentary, click here. And let us know what you think once you’ve seen it.
Congrats to Our Vermont Clients!
A little congratulations is in order for our Vermont-based clients, all of whom received a 2012 Vermont Worksite Wellness Award from the Vermont Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.
The council’s mission includes promoting health and wellness for all Vermonters through physical activity, recognizing outstanding achievements in physical fitness, and encouraging the private sector to develop programs for promoting health and fitness.
PC Construction Company, Sonnax Industries, Vermont Country Store and, ahem, Marathon Health (we’ll give ourselves a little pat on the back here) were recognized for demonstrating an understanding of health management planning principals.
Sonnax Industries, recipient of the Silver Award, was recognized for having a wellness program that’s tied into the employee stock ownership plan, which results in more money in employees’ retirement accounts by saving money on health care costs.
PC Construction was recongnized for its health coaching available for all insured employees and spouses. PC Construction has a 94% participation rate in wellness programs.
And a special congrats to Vermont Country Store, recipient of the Gold Standard Award. VCS was heralded for contining to provide outstanding wellness initiatives, including an 8-week group exercise class pilot offered at various times throughout the day to accomodate employee schedules.
Congratulations to our Vermont partners for these awesome achievements!
New Digs
Apologies for taking so long to reveal this major announcement: We’ve moved! 
As of March 19, Marathon Health’s corporate offices are now located in the historic Champlain Mill in Winooski, VT. The Champlain Mill, located along the Winooski River, is just two miles from our former Colchester office.
For safe keeping, our new address is:
Marathon Health, Inc.
Champlain Mill
20 Winooski Falls Way, Suite 400
Winooski, VT 05404
Our phone numbers and email addresses will remain the same.
Our new space has been designed to create additional synergies between our clinical, technology and account management teams to better serve our clients. Features of our new space include:
- Expansion space for our growing team
- Multi-faceted training center
- Fully operational clinic for beta testing and live simulation training
- Dedicated fitness room
The Champlain Mill was built in 2010 as a wool factory producing wool for suits and coats sold by the American Wool Company. It’s since been converted to office space, and needless to say, we’re thrilled to be a tenant. How could we not with views like this:
Keep It Movin’
About a month we ago, we linked to a YouTube video from a Toronto doctor named Mike Evans illustrating how just a half-hour of exercise per day can vastly improve a person’s health. The video is up to 2.3 million views and counting.
Now, we have even more evidence backing up Dr. Evans’ and others’ claims about the need for daily exercise in order to reduce risks for cardiovascular disease and other conditions.
As part of study to learn more about how inactivity affects disease risk, researchers at the University of Missouri recently convinced a group of healthy, active young adults to spend three consecutive days not moving around so much. It’s widley known in the medical field that sedentary lifestyles lead to increased health risks such as heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, but it’s difficult to pinpoint why. That’s because, as this article points out, inactive people may also be obese, eat poorly or face other lifestyle issues that make it impossible to pinpoint the role inactivity plays in poor health.
The conclusions of the study, which is available here, indicate that “daily physical activity is an important mediator of glycemic control, even among healthy individuals, and reinforces the utility of physical activity in preventing pathologies associated with elevated PPG.” PPG (Postprandial glucose) is an independent predictor of cardiovascular events and death, regardless of diabetes status.
The study found that when the Missouri volunteers dropped from an average of 13,000 steps per day (their normal exercise routine) to less than 5,000 steps per day over the course of the experiment, their blood sugar levels spiked significantly after meals, “with the peaks increasing by about 26 percent compared with when the volunteers were exercising and moving more.”
The good news is that blood sugar regulation quickly returns to normal once activity resumes. But if inactivity is prolonged and becomes the body’s default condition, the risk for chronic disease increases substantially.
It’s really a fascinating study. Make sure you read the whole story.
Ways to Wellness
From CSPNet.Com
Wawa brings doctor to employees; Sheetz breaks ground on “shwellness” center
WAWA & ALTOONA, Pa. — Two major convenience retailers have taken two different approaches to achieving the same goal–employee wellness.
Wawa Inc. is testing a service for its employees that brings the doctor right to the parking lot, reported CBS.
“A tremendous number of our associates had had not seen a primary care doctor in years,” Todd Lombardi, the director of compensation and benefits at the Wawa, Pa.-based chain, told the news outlet.
So a new Wawa pilot program, now at around 30 stores, has a physician making house calls. A Radnor, Pa.-based doctor, Rocklan Walker, sees patients in the parking lot in a converted Mercedes passenger van, Lombardi said.
“Many associates have told good stories about the positive outcomes that they’ve had as result of meeting with Dr. Walker, changes they’ve made to help improve their overall health,” he said.
It’s part of the employee wellness plan, said the report, so there’s no cost to the workers. Lombardi said there is also a bottom-line benefit to keeping them healthy: “It is one of those wonderful intersections between doing something that’s fantastic for the associates that also makes wonderful business sense for us.”
Wawa operates more than 590 c-stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.
Separately, Sheetz Inc. has broken ground on its new 11,500-square-foot health and fitness center in Claysburg, Pa. (see Related Content below for previous CSP Daily News coverage).
The center, scheduled to open in the fall of 2012, will be Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED)-certified and include fitness center and a wellness center. It also will have a quarter-mile outdoor exercise track.
Sheetz Center for Shwellness reflects a national trend by companies to offer enhanced workplace benefits as part of efforts to help employees improve their health and manage health care cost, the company said.
The center will be managed through a partnership with Marathon Health. This allows the facility to have registered nurses to provide routine medical care, health risk assessments, biometrics screenings, wellness coaching and disease management for employees and their families.
“Sheetz has been voted by our employees as among the best places to work for more than a decade because we do everything we can to acknowledge their value and keep them happy in their jobs,” said CEO Stan Sheetz. “The Center for ‘Shwellness’ is part of our culture of wellness, to give employees and their families the tools they need to achieve and maintain good health.”
Sheetz says that the facility will also include a learning center with meeting rooms and video conference capabilities to support both onsite and remote education.
“It’s easy to understand that anything we do to improve our employee’s health, benefits everyone,” he said. “But more importantly, by offering a comprehensive wellness program that includes disease education and screenings, we can help our employees who are at risk for diabetes and heart disease live healthier and longer lives.”
Altoona, Pa.-based Sheetz operates 412 locations throughout Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina.
New Patient Success Video
Every once in a while we’ll ask some of the patients we work with if they would be interested in sharing their success stories with the public. Invariably, each story is uplifting and inspring for those interested in improving their health.
Our latest story comes from Tina. She works for one of our clients in Minneapolis and has struggled with her weight for a long time. Last year, she decided to enter Marathon Health’s The Biggest Loser contest and, through hard work and determination, lost 27 pounds in 5 months. She also completed a 5k and is maintaining a regular exercise schedule. Congrats to Tina on her success! To learn more about Tina and other success stories, click here.
2011 Health Promotion Results
Though primary care is a core component of the services we offer at Marathon Health, it’s just one part of the puzzle.
Another is health coaching services, and coinciding with that program is our health promotion offerings.
2011 was a great year at Marathon Health in terms of health promotion at our client sites. We wanted to share with you the successes we saw in 2011:
• Overall, we offered 85 health promotion programs.
• The Biggest Loser weight loss program resulted in 732 participants losing 3521 lbs.
o Our most successful client had 104 employees participating who lost a total of 1059 lbs. (an average of 10 lbs. per person).
• Eighty-one percent of participants listed a change they would make as a result of the program they attended.
We are off to a great start in 2012. Between January and February, we have offered 52 programs (almost a 50% increase from the same time period last year). The Metabolic Syndrome Education Session is our latest offering. Additionally, other sites have offered smoking cessation groups, blood pressure checks, weight management support groups, a Healthy Weight Challenge and a Complete Wellness Challenge.
We’re looking forward to an even more successful year of onsite health education programming in 2012.
Congrats everybody!
23 and 1/2 Hours
In December, a Toronto doctor named Mike Evans posted a video on YouTube advocating just a half-hour of exercise a day as preventive medicine. Two months later, the video has 1.9 million views and counting.
We think it’s brilliant. The video creatively explains how just limiting sitting and sleeping to 23.5 hours a day will produce dramatic results for your health. Take note.
Dr. Evans, by the way, is founder of the Health Design Lab at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, an Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of Toronto, and a staff physician at St. Michael’s Hospital.
Enjoy.
The ROI Story
In an ideal world, every company would offer onsite health care. 
The Marathon Health Total Population Health Care model is designed to inspire people to lead healthier lives. Included in this model is our focus on working with high-risk employees and those who suffer from chronic conditions and helping them bring their weight, blood pressure, triglycerides and other indicators within normal ranges.
This is important because in addition to having a healthier workforce, companies can save money on healthcare costs by implementing onsite wellness programs. Studies show 20 percent of a given employee population account for 80 percent of total health care costs.
Companies can dramatically reduce costs if they invest in onsite healthcare.
Data and metrics vary, but one of the most comprehensive studies conducted two years ago found that workplace wellness programs generate significant savings.
The study, “Workplace Wellness Programs Can Generate Savings” was conducted by Dr. Katherine Baicker, professor of health economics in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Baicker and her colleagues found that “medical costs fall by about $3.27 for every dollar spent on wellness programs and that absenteeism costs fall by about $2.73 for every dollar spent,” suggesting that “the wider adoption of such programs could prove beneficial for budgets and productivity as well as health outcomes.”
Those numbers seem to align with the projections we give to prospects interested in our services.
The way we document those savings is by using the following hard-dollar indicators: the value of redirected primary/acute care delivered but not submitted as a claim for the purpose of third party reimbursement, reduction in utilization of physician and hospital services, and reduction in work loss days due to illness. Other prodcutivity indicators we use include: reduction of presenteeism, reduction in turnover rate, and reduction in saved time away from work.
For more information about Dr. Baicker’s study, click here.
For a more detailed look at our ROI case study, click here.
Great Healthcare Speaks for Itself
There’s not a day that goes by without our clinicians making positive impacts and inspiring people to lead healthier lives. They really are the best at what they do.
David Dick
A case in point is David Dick, PA-C.
David is a physician’s assistant and lead clinician at the HealthyU shared services health center for Lincoln Industries and IMSCorp in Lincoln, Nebraska. Before coming aboard at Marathon Health, David worked in family practice at East Lincoln Family Health, where he was responsible for all aspects of patient care including detailed history and physical exams, development of treatment plans, prescribing medication, and ordering and interpreting laboratory tests and diagnostic studies.
David recently made the cover of Lincoln Industries’ employee publication for the exemplary work he’s performed since HealthyU opened in August. He’s featured in a story about how he treated the son of a Lincoln Industries employee who broke his hand playing football.
Here’s an excerpt:
“When the swelling didn’t go down, we decided to bring him to HealthU. David Dick (HealthyU Physician Assistant) was able to tell us that Alex had a broken finger. He directed us to the least expensive place to get the finer x-rayed and a cast. Overall, it saved us the cost of a doctor’s visit and what it would have cost to have his hand x-rayed and cast at a more expensive clinic. Today, Alex is back in action as a freshman on Raymond-Central’s Junior Varsity basketball team.
“HealthyU was a good choice for us,” said Joel. “Not only did Alex receive the care he needed for his hand, the service and staff at HealthyU were great. I’m sure David spent 30 minutes or more with Alex when we came in. You simply don’t get that kind of attention when you go to a physician somewhere else. We really appreciated the service we received.”
The full article can be seen here.
Congrats David on a job well done. Keep up the good work!
