Desiree Adams and Tiffany North checked out their body mass index at the Fit in the City display during Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska’s Health and Safety Fair recently. The pair work in the Claims department and were just a few of the hundreds who stopped by the fair for wellness information and swag.
For Fit in the City owner Renee Hardester, it’s a chance to connect with employees who don’t take part in the wellness center fitness classes her company teaches.
“We don’t see all 1200 Blue Cross employees in the wellness center,” Hardester said. “This fair gives us an opportunity to see new faces and explain what we do.”
Providing onsite Weight Watchers classes at Blue Cross leads to better results, according to Laura Schollaert from the weight loss company. She says having employees go through the process together leads to a bond that makes losing weight a lot less scary. Blue Cross offers Weight Watchers every Tuesday.
For start-up Nurture Health, the chance to get in front of employees helps build relationships. Nurture is a direct primary care company that removes the barriers to seeking health care. For a membership fee, there is access to primary care services and low cost prescriptions without having to file an insurance claim.
“When we talk with health care providers they tell us paperwork is limiting their ability to spend more time with their patients,” Allison Dahl, executive director of Nurture Health, said. “You still have to have insurance but it’s like car insurance, you only use it for the big stuff.”
This year’s Health and Safety Fair was held inside the Blue Cross Centre. For the past several years we’ve opened it up to other Aksarben Village businesses.
“We brought it back inside because we wanted to make it a more personal experience for our employees,” Carrie Kahnk, wellness coordinator at Blue Cross, said.
That proved to be a good idea, because it rained most of the day. For employees like Sanjeer Katle, who tried out the new dream wave massage chair, it was better that way.
