|
| Sample Newsletters | MarketPlace AIS Products & Services |
|
AIS's Health Business Daily
Featured Story June 11, 2009 Employees Like Wellness Programs, but Don't Want Their Wages Tied to Them Reprinted from INSIDE CONSUMER-DIRECTED CARE, a biweekly newsletter with timely news and insightful analysis of benefit design, contracts, market strategies and financial results. By Michael E. Carbine, Managing Editor, (mcarbine@aispub.com) While most employees at larger companies are familiar with wellness programs offered by their or other employers, they have mixed feelings when it comes to how incentives should be used to spur employee participation. And it turns out that access to wellness programs is somewhat limited to employees of large companies, those with a higher educational background and higher earners. A study of 583 working adults at companies with 250 or more employees by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, released this month, finds that 38% of those surveyed say their employers offer some kind of wellness program, ranging from nutrition or healthy living classes to wellness newsletter and fitness-center memberships. Among the most common programs: on-site fitness and stress management, gym discounts, diet and nutrition programs, and weight and obesity control initiatives. But while 30% say these programs have a major impact on the health of employees, more than one-half say the impact is minor. The survey, entitled Healthy at Work? Unequal Access to Employer Wellness Programs, also found that more highly educated and more affluent employees are much more likely to have access to employer-based wellness programs, and that access is also higher among salaried than hourly workers. While 70% of employees believe that employers should offer some type of program, employees are ambivalent about how to get employees to participate. The majority of employees surveyed said that compensation should be tied only to their work, regardless of how much they participated in wellness activities. And two-thirds said that employers should not provide extra pay to wellness program participants. However, three-quarters of employees said that their employers should be able to offer lower health premiums to employees who participate, specifically linking healthy behavior to discounted premiums. Employees to a lesser extent also favored gift certificates and extra time off as incentives for participation. But at the same time, most employees also said that employers with health conditions not under their control should not be charged more for their health insurance. This belief did not extend to employees who smoke, drink too much alcohol or are overweight. While just
over half of those surveyed feel that the benefits of electronic medical
records outweigh any privacy risks, they strongly believe that their
employers should not have access to the records. This belief was particularly
strong among lower-income workers, who said they worry about anything
that could jeopardize their job security, including discrimination because
of health factors.
|
| ||||||||
