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Do you think wellness programs save money for employers? Read the arguments on both sides.
"It's a no brainer. ...Laypersons believe that wellness programs, thanks to prevention and health promotion, should translate into lower premiums.
Jaan Sidorov, MD former health plan medical director
"Wellness programs are so worthless that employers basically have to force their employees to lose money if they don't participate."
Al Lewis president of Disease Management Purchasing Consortium
WORKPLACE WELLNESS PROGRAMS INTUItively make sense, are encouraged by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and have been embraced by 75 percent to 93 percent of American employers.
Five years ago only 57 percent of companies participated in some kind of corporate wellness program, but today most employees are being asked by their employer to participate in programs designed to make them healthier and to reduce the cost of medical care. Wellness programs are now the fastest growing area in employee benefits, and a $6 billion industry that is a gold mine for benefit consultants and brokers.
Most workplace wellness programs use biometric screenings, incentives, ROI evaluations and health risk appraisals as the foundation of their approach. With calls for transforming the American clinical delivery from a sickness system to a wellness system, increasing support for prevention, and agreement that fee-for-service should be replaced by value-based payments, many consider investing in a wellness program to be "a no brainer."
But do they work? Do they cut costs for employers and do they make employees healthier and happier?
Proponents of workplace wellness programs immediately point to a Harvard meta analysis published in Health Affairs with an abstract describing a $6 return for every $1 invested in such programs ($3.27 via wellness programs and $2.73 via reduced absenteeism).
Another study revealed about a 25 percent reduction in sick leave, health insurer costs and worker compensation and disability costs.
Champions of such programs also quote Safeway CEO Steven A. Burd, who wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "Safeway designed just such a plan in 2005 and has made continuous improvements each year. The results have been remarkable" and "our health care costs for four years have been held constant."
Burd is credited with impressing Senate Republicans and Democrats who incorporated a "Safeway Amendment"...