Employers in the United States are implementing a growing number of incentives to encourage employees to participate in health programs.
They are also seeking to promote better health habits among workers and family members covered under their employee benefits, hoping to reap the benefits of cost reduction. A survey determined that about 84 percent of employers are offering incentives to convince workers to take health risk questionnaires (HRQ), with 64 percent similarly attempting to improve participation in biometric screenings, Plan Sponsor reports.
"Programs and tools like HRQs and biometric screenings can make employees more aware of their health status and of the opportunities to improve their health, but alone they won't move the needle when it comes to health improvement and mitigating cost," said one researcher.
Employers are finding that incentivizing participation may not be enough, however. While more than half offer some reward to those who participate in wellness programs, this approach can have the unintended effect of making workers feel entitled. Instead, many businesses are seeking to restructure their methods so that participants are rewarded only for better health outcomes, rather than just participating in the program.
Many employers tie incentives to lifestyle modification programs, rewarding employees who improve their health by quitting smoking or losing weight. They may also be tied to biometrics, so that workers are rewarded when they achieve a healthier blood pressure, blood sugar or cholesterol.
Setting useful goals and determining effective incentives
About 59 percent of employers offered a monetary incentive for wellness program participation this year, up from 37 percent last year, researchers found. The number who employed such incentives for disease or condition management programs grew from 17 to 54 percent. Incentives are still, in many cases, tied to screenings and questionnaires without any ties to addressing the concerns they may raise, researchers found.
Employee benefit plan administration and design practices may have significant room for improvement in terms of how incentives are employed. While incentivizing enrollment can have an effect, the impact on employee health may not be as strong as employers desire. Incentivizing health outcomes instead could be a way to address this problem.
What incentives are most effective is another matter that may be difficult to determine. Giving employees a break on benefit costs when they maintain better health may be an option, particularly since having healthier employees should lower the price of coverage for a given business.
