Health coaching is one of the most powerful ways of changing people’s mindsets for the long term. Practitioners are rapidly taking their place alongside executive coaches, life coaches and personal trainers as another means of making us better people through one-to-one improvement sessions.

We live in a digitized era. Our professional and personal lives go by the dictum that data should drive our actions and reactions. In the course of doing business, companies receive and handle a significant volume of data, and in many instances, this data will include critical—and sensitive—personal data about individuals, be they customers or even employees. Data is increasingly seen as essential to be competitive and is, in its own way, a currency. However, being a data handler also comes with responsibilities and significant risk. In the Philippines, an archipelago composed of 7,107 islands and a population of over 100 million, legislators realized that legislation needed to catch up with this new digital reality.

The UK Group Risk market – even more employees and premiums but, continuing a theme, still too few employer customers purchasing group risk benefits

In today’s landscape, employee benefits need to become the hot topic of conversation. There are many factors driving this since the demographics surrounding today’s workforce are constantly changing. With evolving employee demands and expectations, and new ways of working (think gig economy), employers need to play the employee benefits card to entice potential and current talent to stay put.

Global Benefits Vision: Reto, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Has elipsLife adopted InsurTech? What is your strategy going forward and what are your achievements regarding InsurTech? Reto Toscan: InsurTech is a hot buzzword that gets thrown around a lot, but at elipsLife we’ve embraced it by building one of the most digital and integrated platforms in the business.

Global Benefits Vision: Hello Enrique. Tell us about the highlights of your career, but first, how did you come to enter the insurance field? Enrique Avecedo: Right after I graduated from university with my business degree, I started working in administration at my father’s insurance brokerage firm. I learned operations in a hands-on manner: record-keeping, taking policies to clients, collecting premiums—I’ve done everything.

The current epidemic in the US is thought to have begun with the over-prescription of opioids for pain relief: in 1991, 76m opioid prescriptions were dispensed by US retail pharmacies. By 2011, this figure was 219m. The overall rate of death from drug overdose more than trebled in the US between 1999 and 2016.

Updated blood pressure guidelines from the American Heart Association mean that many more Americans, notably older people, are now diagnosed with high blood pressure, or hypertension. This may sound like bad news, but the new guidelines highlight some important lessons we cardiologists and heart health researchers have learned from the latest blood pressure studies. Specifically, we have learned that damage from high blood pressure starts at much lower blood pressures than previously thought and that it is more important than ever to start paying attention to your blood pressure before it starts causing problems.

Global Benefits Vision is celebrating its third year of publication, an auspicious milestone for a magazine that appeals to such a specialised audience. Owned and operated by global employee benefits industry executives, Global Benefits Vision’s mission is to contribute to the development of the market and to the development of global employee benefits and global mobility professionals, whilst keeping a neutral position among providers.

Collaborative Benefits Interview: J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr. and Leslie Lemenager Gut microbes are tiny sensors of your general health Eliminate the middlemen: The Bezos-Buffett-Dimon U.S. health care venture How does your body ‘burn’ fat? In praise of doing nothing 2018 IBIS Conference Report New Product: MAXIS Global Wellness – A Q&A with Dr. Leena Johns Luxembourg Pensions for Post-Brexit Workers

In the July-August 2018 issue Collaborative Benefits Jean-Baptiste de La Mettrie, Fatih Eser Interview: J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr. and Leslie Lemenager Gut microbes are tiny sensors of your general health Claire Steves Eliminate the middlemen: The Bezos-Buffett-Dimon U.S. health care venture J.B. Silvers, Mark Vortuba How does your body ‘burn’ fat? David Prologo In praise of doing nothing Simon Gottschalk 2018 IBIS Conference Report New Product: MAXIS Global Wellness

The number of studies that have found a link between a disease and a specific gut microbiome composition seems to be ever increasing. Until recently, though, almost all these studies have looked at single diseases in isolation. But most people tend to have more than one health complaint at a time – “comorbidities”, in medical parlance.

Gallagher President, Chairman, and CEO J. Patrick “Pat” Gallagher, Jr., and Vice President – International, Gallagher Benefits & HR Consulting, Leslie Lemenager, sat down with GBV during the 2018 IBIS Academy. They discussed Gallagher’s history and values as well as client needs and market trends in global employee benefits and global mobility. Gallagher’s long history and family connections result in unique, long-term, and people-oriented perspectives. Read on.

Collaborative Perks is the most recent brainchild of co-founder Jean-Baptiste de la Mettrie, who believes in encouraging the practice of collaborative consumption as a way for global employers to attract and retain talent. In an article, “Mandated and discretionary benefits: understanding the types of compensation available for your employees” and published on Linked In, de la Mettrie breaks compensation schemes into “two major subcategories: mandated and discretionary benefits.” Both types, he explains, help employees enjoy a “more comfortable lifestyle,” but some benefits are standardized and compulsory. Discretionary benefits, he says, “offer a wide range of advantages that compliment mandated forms of compensation, and even go the extra length to ensure employee gratification”. (Emphasis mine.)

The 48th IBIS Academy Conference was held from 7 – 11 May 2018, in conjunction with the IBIS Institute, a “boot camp” for practitioners, and the IBIS Mobility and Partner Program. It included a three-day series of cutting-edge presentations and panels for more experienced colleagues. The overarching theme was “Your Future, Your Workforce” and focused on what it takes to be an employer of choice for the future.

Global Benefits Vision: Why has MAXIS GBN decided to launch its new wellness solution now? What were the key drivers behind the launch? Dr. Leena Johns MD: Over the past few years we have worked with clients to identify the cost drivers of their health claims data across disparate geographies, through our sophisticated data reporting tools. While some markets offer solutions to mitigate these drivers, often, in reality, there is an absence of data-based recommendations and a lack of cohesive, centralised solutions that can be rolled out globally.

In the 1950s, scholars worried that, thanks to technological innovations, Americans wouldn’t know what to do with all of their leisure time. Yet today, as sociologist Juliet Schor notes, Americans are overworked, putting in more hours than at any time since the Depression and more than in any other in Western society.

Many of us may be considering “burning some fat” so we feel better in our bathing suits out on the beach or at the pool. What does that actually mean, though?

The new health care venture formed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase announced June 20 that Harvard professor and well-known author Atul Gawande would be the company’s CEO. The idea for the new company is to innovate by cutting costs from the health care system, starting with the more than 1 million employees of the three companies behind the venture.

The setup of a business in Luxembourg will result in the migration of employees from the United Kingdom. This will be cause for changes in their professional and personal lives, such as new remuneration packages, changes in employment contracts, tax and social security, family assistance plans for housing, school, etc. Using the Brexit model as an example, we can explain what happens in terms of social security and occupational pension schemes for employees (not all of whom are from the UK) who are migrating to Luxembourg.

Bleisure Travel and Corporate Liability Issues – A Debate Moving Around Has Big Health Benefits Three Things That Should Be Part of Any Weight Loss Efforts New Medical Advances in Fighting Obesity Why GPs May Not Be Able to Help You Lose Weight Benefits in Brazil – WBN Series – Ana Carolina Conduta Losco, Priscila Maria Lima Conduta Elias WBN – Worldwide Broker Network – San Antonio Conference Report

For many years, the long-term success rates for those who attempt to lose excess body weight have hovered around 5-10 percent. In what other disease condition would we accept these numbers and continue on with the same approach? How does this situation sustain itself? 

Imagine that you are running a company, but you cannot get to your goal because all of your good workers keep quitting. For 30 years, your response to this problem has been to criticize the workers and say they are stupid and weak for quitting. As a result, you never reach your goal. You don’t change your formula or alter your plan, just keep blaming and shaming the workers for quitting.

Pretty much everyone knows that taking exercise helps people stay in good health. It staves off chronic ailments like type 2 diabetes and heart disease and – maybe – helps us live longer.

Mixing work and pleasure in one trip abroad can raise serious issues. Five experts from the Asia-Pacific in April 2018 debated how to stay on the safe side.

The Worldwide Broker Network (WBN) held its 58th Global Conference April 11th through the 13th, 2018, in San Antonio, Texas. Over 330 WBN members, associate members, sponsors, and some clients attended, with EPIC serving as the member host. The 58th Global Conference had record attendance from the Employee Benefits field, with 65 Employee Benefits focused attendees coming to San Antonio. Sessions were regularly packed, and an enthusiastic audience gave a special energy to this rapidly growing part of WBN.