The interest in employers cutting healthcare costs has purred the growth of companies claiming their employer wellness tools can make it easier for employers to satisfy those goals. But a new report sheds some light on the downside of employer wellness programs, particularly the invasiveness people feel in their personal lives and concerns by patient advocacy groups such as the American Diabetes Association over the use of financial incentives to influence behavior. The Healthcare Blog highlights some of its findings.
Wellness advocacy groups Health Enhancement Research Organization and the Population Health Alliance put together the report with a committee of 39 “subject matter experts” from 27 wellness vendors and health plans to assemble the report.
One of the things that makes the report’s findings so interesting is that, as The Healthcare Blog notes, workplace wellness was one of the few provisions of the Affordable Care Act that received bipartisan support. It called attention to the shallow financial benefit of employer wellness programs described in the report.
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“It optimistically lists wellness’s gross annual savings as about $12 per employee (‘optimistically’ because US government data shows that the 23 percent reduction in heart attacks and related admissions they attribute to their wellness program happened to match the 23 percent reduction in heart attacks that took place everywhere over the same multi-year period). In other words, most major corporations are subjecting millions of employees to demeaning weigh-ins and uncomfortable (plus, often inaccurate or misinterpreted) blood draws…all to save the price of lunch.”
The report highlights concerns such as the stigmatizing effect of these programs as well as concerns over privacy and “the fairness of requiring individuals to achieve outcomes” can have on employee morale. It concludes that “less intrusive and more equitable” ways to promote wellness such as designing health benefits that reward primary care providers for wellness visits.
In an especially damning paragraph, the report authors said that the negative impacts undermine the positive gains of these programs.
“Although there is some evidence of positive effects from employer-sponsored HRRPs, it is less compelling than some published reports and promotional materials suggest. Furthermore, in evaluating the overall desirability of employer-sponsored HR-RPs, health plan sponsors and health policy makers need to consider the legal, ethical, and other implications of the programs.”
The American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, and American Diabetes Association also noted that despite supporting employer wellness programs generally, financial incentives to motivate behavior shouldn’t be tied to premiums, deductibles or other co-insurance paid by employers.
“The evidence that insurance-based incentives change behavior is lacking, and the risk that these plans could be used to discriminate against persons who are less healthy than their counterparts is not insignificant.”
