Employer-sponsored wellness programs may not be as helpful as they purport to be. According to Harvard Business School historian Nancy Koehn, recent data on wellness programs show no correlations between the programs and decreases in chronic disease, stress, and --most important to large companies--insurance premiums.
Three trillion dollars is spent on healthcare each year in the United States, and a large percentage of this amount is being spent by businesses for employee-sponsored health care, says Koehn. In an effort to reduce this cost, American companies spend 6 billion dollars a year on wellness programs. The idea is that these programs will make their employees healthier and reduce their insurance costs and medical bills. They are also supposed to increase productivity.
While most wellness programs offer exercise and nutritional options, many companies use extreme measures, going as far as raising your insurance levels or docking your pay if you don’t meet certain health expectations. “60% of companies use financial incentives, often negative incentives to try to motivate employees," said Koehn.
These tactics have not only been sanctioned by the Affordable Care Act, they are encouraged. “The Affordable Care Act increases the ceiling by which employers that pay part of their worker's health care costs can actually levy financial incentives, primarily negative ones on employees,” said Koehn.
For the most part, Koehn says, employees like having the gyms, showers, and yoga classes that come with many corporate wellness programs. What they don’t like? Being forced to participate. “They like things they have choices about, that don’t make them feel that their job or their wallet are in jeopardy,” said Koehn.
