Women employees bring challenge to company
CIGNA offerings boast high participation rates
A population that is 72% female would naturally dictate wellness programming geared toward women’s health issues. It wouldn’t, however, guarantee a 50% participation rate.
Yet that’s what the employee health department at Philadelphia-based CIGNA Corp. has achieved. Nearly half of all the women who work for the health care, insurance, and financial service organization or more than 12,000 women have participated in some form of breast health education since the company began offering the programs in 1993. In addition, more than 3,500 CIGNA employees have received free on-site mammograms.
The comprehensive CIGNA program, which has been included in Working Mother magazine’s list of "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" for the past five years, includes:
• on-site lactation centers;
• breast health early detection program;
• "healthy babies" program;
• flextime, telecommuting, and job sharing;
• family leave;
• resource referral for child and eldercare;
• take-home meals;
• fitness programs.
(See box listing "Working Mother" Top Ten for 1996, p. 8.)
Programs like CIGNA’s are not only the right thing to do; they’re the smart thing to do, says Miriam Jacobson, director of the Prevention Leadership Forum, Washington (DC) Business Group on Health.
"It is a kind of enlightened self-interest for companies [to foster women-friendly wellness programming] because of the growing number and power of women in the workplace; there are not only more and more women, but they are moving higher and higher in the corporate chain of command," she notes. "There’s also a growing recognition that it’s a sound investment to help employees to be successful not only in the workplace, but also at home."
The CIGNA program, says Catherine L. Hawkes, MSN, assistant vice president of employee health, owes its success to two key factors: an ongoing evaluation and expansion of CIGNA’s health promotion programs, and the enthusiasm of the 300-plus volunteer site coordinators who keep employees informed of new programs as they become available.
Until fairly recently, Hawkes says, CIGNA created new programs solely based on input from employees. "Like many companies, CIGNA really began to get serious in the early 1990s, and we started with prenatal education," she recalls. After "great results" from that program, CIGNA expanded into on-site mammography, and two years ago it began its on-site lactation program.
"In the past, new programs were created by popular demand; somebody would read about a program, or an employee would approach us with a request," Hawkes says. "Now, we’re data-driven, as well."
Those data include HEDIS (Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set) reporting, which can be used to both identify large at-risk populations and help design appropriate programming, and NCQA (National Committee for Quality Assurance) quality measures. "We have quality management meetings with our health care plans on a monthly basis, and we look at claims data and employee satisfaction," she explains.
This latter point underscores the fact that CIGNA will never stop listening to its employees. For example, says Hawkes, data from its Working Well fitness center shows that women between the ages of 35 and 45 are not well-represented in exercise programs. This concerns her department, particularly because of the increased risk of osteoporosis for women in this age group.
So CIGNA has planned a series of focus groups for early this year. "We want to talk with them, and find out what their specific needs are," Hawkes notes. (Employee input has led to a new program that CIGNA is now marketing to its clients, as well. See the related story on p. 8.)
CIGNA also seeks employee input through its health promotion newsletter Upbeat, by including surveys that ask them to suggest new programs they would like to see.
Volunteers help spread the word
More than 300 CIGNA employees have volunteered to serve as site coordinators for the Working Well wellness program, and Hawkes says they are a vital link in the communication network that keeps employees informed and enthusiastic about new and ongoing programs.
"We send our materials out to their offices, and then they spread the word," she says. The coordinators receive quarterly newsletters from headquarters, which let them know about new programs coming up. They are also "in constant touch" with the manager and assistant manager of Working Well through regular conference calls. Marketing materials are sent to the coordinators in "template" form, which they then customize for their local work site.
The coordinators also let employees know about CIGNA’s "800" health hotline, and LAN (local area network) services, if they happen to be available at that particular site.
"With LANs, our messages come up on the computer or TV screens," explains Hawkes.
Sherry DuBose, an administrative assistant in major claims, found out about the Walking Well program through her LAN system. "It was one of the menu choices offered through the wellness center, and what was really neat was that you didn’t have to belong to the center to participate," she recalls. DuBose now walks one hour every day at lunch.
DuBose says the breast education program literally saved her life. "Thank God for early detection," she says. "I was diagnosed in 1990, and my life and my breast were saved." Another employee, administrative assistant Lynn Rice, was "scared" into regular mammograms after participating in "Lee National Denim Day," a one-day fundraising event for breast cancer that CIGNA encourages its employees to support
"I was 48, and when the program said that one in 50 women my age get breast cancer, that was pretty scary," she recalls. She has now been having mammograms regularly for three years, and last year a density was observed in her breast. While it appears to be benign, she is now having more frequent screenings (every six months), and the CIGNA medical director personally calls to remind her of her appointments.
"This is a wonderful program," she says. "It shows that CIGNA really cares about its women employees."
For Hawkes, that caring means constantly working to make the programs better. For example, her goal is to achieve nationwide coverage for the "Working Well Moms" nursing program, which currently offers 28 facilities with on-site lactation centers. "We were limited because of a lack of facility space," she says. "We have now ordered a smaller pump from our vendor, Sanvita, which is unobtrusive and can be used in a smaller space."
Hawkes also plans to widen the reach of CIGNA’s screening program with the help of an expanded mobile unit system, which will make mammography available across the country.
[Editor’s note: For more information on CIGNA’s wellness programs for women, contact Catherine Hawkes, assistant vice president of employee health, at: CIGNA Corp., 11650 Market St., One Liberty Place, FL 52, Philadelphia, PA 19192. Telephone: (215) 761-8573.]
Employee input yields a double dividend
One of the newer additions to CIGNA Corp.’s health promotion programs for women may prove to be a new source of sales revenue for the company, as well.
"The Expectant Manager," which was created through the joint efforts of CIGNA staff and an outside vendor, has been offered to major health care clients of CIGNA Health Care, a division of CIGNA Corp., since June 1996.
Development of the program began in 1990, when a group of CIGNA employees in Connecticut started sharing experiences about their pregnancies which all seemed to include a changed relationship with their managers.
"Some managers, for example, might assume that pregnant women don’t want to travel, or work late," explains Catherine Hawkes, MSN, assistant vice president of employee health, who spearheaded the program’s development. Some managers, she notes, are just not sure how to respond to pregnant women, or what questions are appropriate to ask.
Working with Marshall Educational Programs, a California-based vendor, the group developed a self-administered program directed toward managers of pregnant women.
The program runs about one hour. For $100, CIGNA clients receive a 30-minute video, a trainer’s guide, and six participant workbooks. "The trainer’s workbook includes a pretest, assessment of knowledge, discussion questions, and a section about policies and procedures," explains Hawkes. "The video includes vignettes that help the group talk about different employee and manager reactions."
The program has been well-received by both employees and outside clients, says Hawkes.
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content