Encouraging Healthy Behavior in the Workplace

...Perhaps no company nationally has pushed further to tie food service to employee health than CerneEven the arrangement of the chip rack in Cerner’s cafeteria is telling: Healthier baked chips get the top rack; fattier fried snacks are put at ankle height.

Also, the company, which has restyled itself from a technology firm to a health care company, is sponsoring a “Slimdown Throwdown” contest to encourage employee teams to lose weight. The prize will be an expenses-paid vacation for the winning team.

David Nill, a physician, serves as chief medical officer for Cerner Healthe, the company’s self-insured health plan and wellness subsidiary.

Nill is working with other Cerner and American Food staff to add a food service-related feature to Cerner’s health insurance card.

The card, which looks like a debit or credit card, can be used to pay for prescriptions and services in Cerner’s Healthe Clinic and elsewhere.

But, Nill said, they’re working to enable Cerner associates to swipe those cards when they go through the lunch line to record healthy meal choices. The information goes into “an individual’s personal health record that can build points.”

Those points will translate into discounts toward health-related purchases, such as exercise equipment, or to reduce health plan costs in the following year.

“We’re talking about changing lifestyles,” said Julie Wilson, Cerner’s chief people officer. “It’s not just about food.”