The Aetna Case
In 2012, Mark Bertolini, CEO of one America’s largest health insurance companies – Aetna, released his own research finding that an 8 week mindfulness program together with 1 hour of yoga a week can successfully reduce stress and lower health care costs for companies.
The CEO’s study (which involved 3,300 of his 33,000 employees) showed there was a significant decrease (33%) in employee stress upon completion of the mindfulness programs. Further, his findings suggested that only 1 hour of yoga per week was needed to start lowering the stress levels, and direct healthcare costs, of his staff.
“Employees who report a high degree of stress in their lives, miss twice as many work days as employees who report a low degree of stress.”
