When it comes to keeping health care costs down, employers are turning more and more frequently to workplace wellness programs. In fact, more than half of employers (54%) now incorporate some kind of initiative, whether it be free flu shots or financial perks for hitting health goals, into their overall health care strategies, according to a recent Aon Hewitt survey.
But do those programs really work?
That was the question posed by Georgetown University, which released a study this year examining the incentives – and disincentives – employers are using across the country to encourage better health.
The answer? Well, it depends.
Although Georgetown researchers said well-designed programs have the “potential” to encourage healthier living, they found no authoritative research to prove that they improve healthy outcomes or save employers money long-term. The university warned that poorly-designed programs could do considerable harm by shifting costs to those with the greatest health care needs and potentially run afoul of federal anti-discrimination laws.
So researchers gave some recommendations of things employers should look for when designing a workplace wellness program of their own. For example, the program should include:
- A multi-pronged approach that goes beyond linking premiums to biometric measures;
- A reasonable timeframe for participants to meet the program’s goals with incentives along the way;
- Protections for employees to ensure that premiums remain affordable even if workers can’t satisfy the employer’s health targets;
- Safeguards to ensure that programs don’t result in health status discrimination or adverse selection against insurance exchanges.
It’s an interesting study. If you’d like to take a look for yourself, here’s a link to the full report. Or, if you’d like a more conversational read, here’s a great article in USAToday.