Employer Knows Best
The share of companies that used financial rewards in health management programs increased to 54% in 2011 from 36% in 2009. In 2012, about 80% of companies plan to offer financial rewards… The percentage using penalties, such as for smoking, more than doubled — from 8% in 2009 to 19% in 2011. Nearly 40% of the companies surveyed plan to use penalties next year.
More from USA Today here.
These are interesting incentives to entice people to live a healthy lifestyle. Apparently, being healthy isn’t a strong enough incentive, in and of itself.
The evidence on this is mixed. For some large employers, wellness programs are beneficial. However, they rely on a lot of things.
A “paternalistic” company where peer pressure to conform is high, located on a campus where employees are segregated from the population at large, and where there are onsite health clinics and fitness centers, can probably pull it off.
But how can Joe’s Plumbing or Sid’s Electical Contractors, with a dozen or so employees, who are usually offsite, going to execute this? For most American workers, relying on their employer to put forward incentives for them to lose weight or quit smoking is not a credible option.
No question this saves lots of money, though I’m a little skeptical of the “penalties for smokers”.
John Graham is correct that wellness programs are a mixed bag. A study by the Center for Studying Health System Change found most wellness programs do not cover their costs. The ones that work (as John points out) tend to fit certain criteria. It requires significant resources, and must be more than an online “health coach” website. The management has to strongly lead by example. There has to be incentives, teamwork and peer pressure. The benefits are small and take years to realize. I’ve always assumed the wellness programs that work are really programs that discourage unhealthy job candidates, coerce employees into dropping unhealthy behaviors and run off all the unhealthy workers who refuse to change.