Survey reveals wellness programs are not held accountable for lowering costs

According to a survey of 443 employers conducted by WorldatWork and underwritten by HealthMine, wellness programs aren’t being held accountable for lowering health care costs.

The survey found that 72 percent of organizations are measuring the effectiveness of their wellness programs, but only 37 percent are measuring the impact of wellness on health care costs. Additionally, 33 percent of organizations aren’t seeing any positive impact from wellness programs, reporting zero effect on health care costs, according to the survey.

Additional findings of the survey include 42 percent of employers don’t support physical health risk assessments as part of their wellness initiative; 25 percent of organizations don’t incentivize or penalize for participation on biometrics or other physical assessments; 50 percent of employers don’t incentivize or penalize for smoking cessation; and 43 percent of employers don’t offer incentives to employees for participation or penalties for non-participation in disease management.

“Last year we processed 495 million pieces of health data to create meaningful incentives for plan members to manage their health,” HealthMine CEO and President Bryce Williams said. “If a member is motivated to change diet and exercise to avoid diabetes they are much more likely to follow through; that creates sustainable engagement. And we need to offer them carrots for getting initial biometric screenings; from there we can identify health risks and tailor personalized actions and incentives. That's how wellness program can begin to achieve (return on investment)."