Article originally published on the Huffington Post in January 2018
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Soon after becoming CEO, Bertolini began Aetna’s mindfulness-based wellness programs with a study. He says, “We measured heart rate variability to establish stress levels for approximately 250 employees. We put them into quintiles and the highest quintile of stress was spending upwards of $2,000 a year more on health care costs than the average. We invested in 12 weeks of yoga and mindfulness training in a set of practices established with eMindful and Gary Kraftsow of the American Viniyoga Institute. At the end of that study we saw dramatic drops in heart rate variability and an increase in presenteeism and productivity. The employee’s journals were the most compelling part; they led us on our discovery to see exactly what factors were causing high stress levels.”
Read the full interview on the Huffington Post
Read the abstract from the Aetna research study piloted during the Aetna Mindfulness at Work program here.
