Dallas-based Trajectory Health, LLC has announced a partnership with HeartMath® to deliver clinical stress management solutions to the corporate marketplace.
"Many of today's health problems are directly related to or significantly impacted by stress," said Wally Gomaa, MHA/MBA, president of Trajectory Health. "We are confident that by bringing our corporate clients the scientifically-proven award-winning HeartMath Program to help neutralize, manage and even prevent individuals' stress that they will see positive, measurable results and a healthier work force."
According to Gomaa, many companies have a fundamental flaw in how they manage employee benefit plans, focusing exclusively on managing current health claims and individuals with existing chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Trajectory Health's focus is to concentrate on measurably slowing the production of new disease before a catastrophic event occurs, working with companies to design, implement and evaluate clinical intervention programs with employees. The HeartMath offering will become an important component of Trajectory Health's clinical intervention programs, notes Gomaa.
"The impact of stress on health and the bottom line is gaining increasing attention by major U.S. health providers as well as corporate benefits directors and the C-suite," added Bruce Cryer, president and CEO of HeartMath. "Stress is the driving force in many of the costliest chronic conditions, as well as an expensive factor in sickness, absenteeism, and pharmacy usage. Working with Trajectory Health will allow us to help more organizations reduce their health care costs and improve the lives of staff and leaders alike."
"The partnership with Trajectory Health provides excellent opportunity for our clients," said Catherine Calarco, vice president of sales and marketing for HeartMath LLC. "HeartMath anticipated that stress would become an overwhelming issue. So we set out to develop practical, proven solutions that would get to the core of preventing and transforming today's stressors. The HeartMath System was designed for the complexity and speed of life today - it's the right program for these times."
According to The American Institute of Stress, 75-90 percent of all doctor visits are related to stress. Over time, stress wears down the immune system and contributes to heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, depression and sleep disorders. "We can identify and create behavior change with at-risk individuals so that we measurably reverse the production of disease and improve clinical results. Ultimately, this will help employers to eliminate claims from the system," Gomaa said.
Numerous published studies substantiate the effectiveness of HeartMath's stress management program in a wide range of occupations and industries. Those benefits include rapid and sustained improvement in stress, health, well-being, performance and vitality of participants. In one landmark study with a HeartMath client, an independent actuarial analysis compared the utilization of medical and pharmacy benefits of two cohort groups -- individuals who participated fully in the program versus those who did not. Employees who participated in the HeartMath program saved their employer an average of about $585 each in health care costs. That ROI is predicted to double in year two of the program.
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