1. Effectof Wellness Programs on Healthcare Insurance
Jacob Richardson Health and Wellness Co.
Many people wonder how they can reduce their
Healthcare Insurance Premiums. The companies
that they work for offer a Healthcare Insurance plan
but is the insurance plan the best price? Can be but
most of the Healthcare Insurance plans that
companies offer includes Wellness Programs that
employees have to do. Why do these Healthcare
Insurance plans contain a Wellness Program?
The companies have Wellness Programs to decrease
the costs of Healthcare Insurance and to get the
most coverage possible from the Healthcare
Insurance Company. In this article, the above
questions will be answered by discussing the factors
and the effects of a Wellness Program that decrease
premiums on Healthcare Insurance. These factors
are:
 Increase employee productivity
 Leads to less employee absent days due to
illness
 Resolving concerns with Wellness
Programs.
Increase employee productivity
Employees are able to work harder for longer
periods of time because their physical body is able
to endure more challenges due to exercise.
Wellness programs keep employees emotionally
healthy: Regular exercise is a great way to reduce
stress and feelings of depression and anxiety,
which very likely increases productivity.1
Employees’ mind is better to cope and endure the
mental stresses of the job that come up. Due to the
neuro learning that occurs in exercise.
Energy levels are higher because employees that
exercise regularly are more alert during work hours
and they are less likely to get tired during the
workday.2 As Ralph Harik of imp said, “Healthier
employees, I am convinced, tend to be more
energetic and enjoy coming to work, which
translates into greater company loyalty and higher
productivity.”3
This leads to employees not miss work days.
Lead to less employee absent days due to illness
In many studies that have been done show that
people miss work days mostly due to sickness or
illness that they have. This can come from chronic
diseases like Cancer, Hypertension, Cardiovascular,
and Diabetes. Wellness programs help employees
manage their chronic disease if they have one.
Exercise and diet programs has been proven to have
an effect on chronic disease whether to prevent
them or treat them. The Physical Activity
Guidelines for Americans is based on the facts that,
what a person must do in order to receive the
greatest reduction of risk for chronic diseases.
In a Workplace Wellness Program Study released
in 2013, approximately 80 percent reported the
programs decreased absenteeism.4
Employees are healthier and therefore don’t suffer
from sickness or illness as often.
Resolving concerns with Wellness Programs
Great things can come from these Wellness
programs but problems still arise about them. The
biggest problems facing Wellness Programs is that
not every employee is motivated to participate in
the wellness program, and not every employee
knows about the wellness program, and the wellness
program isn’t cost efficient. The pie chart includes
the different type of employees in the company.
Courtesy of Len Strazewski5
60 percent of employees know about the wellness
program at the company. 40 percent of those
Employees and wellness program Employees know
about wellness
program
Employees don't
know about
wellness programs
Employees who
actually
participate in a
wellness program

2. 2
employees that know about the wellness program
actually participate. The other 40 percent of the
employees of the company don’t even know about
the wellness program.6
Not every employee participates in the wellness
programs because they don’t enjoy the exercise or
physical activity program that is provided by the
company. People want to do things they enjoy. In
order to help solve this problem many companies
have provided incentives or rewards for employees
if they participate in the wellness programs.
Some of these incentives are free gym
memberships, massages, yoga classes, T-shirts,
coffee mugs, tickets to local events, and gift cards.7
Most companies give out free money and better
premiums on healthcare insurance.
In fact Len Strazewski said that Health insurance
premium discounts or credits were the most popular
form of incentive.8
Some employees don’t even know that their
company offers a wellness program. Len says that
communication is an answer to this problem.
Gallup research pegs the problem to both
management and plan design.9
If companies developed better plans, then most
employees would enjoy the wellness program.
These employees would tell their other co-workers
about the wellness programs. The plan design of
these wellness programs will also help motivate
employees to participate because often people need
to be held accountable in order to achieve goals.
Management would have a factor in making sure
employees are participating in the wellness
programs.
Other aspects of wellness programs can also
influence whether or not employees participate in
them. In the study that Liu et al. did showed that a
wellness program is made up of different things like
Disease management, nurse advice line, HRA a
health questionnaire, Lifestyle management, weight
control, fitness, nutrition, stress, and smoking
cessation.
In a study of 15,587 employees only 7,200
participated in the wellness program. The types of
participants found in the study were more likely to
be older, more likely to be female and less likely to
be a dependent and to have chronic conditions such
as asthma, Congestive heart failure, and depression.
The bar graph below displays the different percent
risk of rate for inpatient admissions.
Courtesy of Liu et al.10
The inpatient admission rate for these participants
was 38 percent higher than that for nonparticipants.
When participants were matched with their
nonparticipant counterparts, the nonparticipant
counterparts had higher total medical costs, more
inpatient admissions and emergency room visits.11
Liu et al said that the results are not statistically
significant. They also said the reason for the results
not to be statistically significant is because in the
study disease management was not included and the
study didn’t last long enough to see the benefits and
the results. Realizing the benefits of a wellness
program can take longer than three years. Benefits
of the wellness program include reductions in costs
and utilization. The analysis period may not be
sufficient to detect significant changes in the
outcomes.12 Some other difference between the
findings of this study and other studies that have
been done is that the other studies is due to variation
in design, how the study was implemented, the
intervention intensity, and or incentives offered to
encourage program participation.
Types of interventions include health education
materials either electronically or in print, group
classes, online tools, and individual or group
counseling. The interventions here can be included
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
Participants Non
Participants
Rates for inpatient admission

3. 3
in a wellness program, which can possibly motivate
employees to participate. These interventions if
implemented into a wellness program can be a way
for the company to measure how many employees
are participating in the wellness program.
Healthcare insurance companies can take this
information that the company uses to measure
employee participation and health, to determine
what kind of Healthcare Plans the company can use.
The healthcare insurance companies will determine
the price of premiums for each employee of the
company. Tests or questionnaires that are a part of
the wellness program are vital for the healthcare
insurance companies to determine the kind of
healthcare coverage and price of premiums for each
employee.
In conclusion, wellness programs that companies
provide can effect healthcare insurance based on the
kind of coverage and price of premiums. Many
factors of the wellness programs play a role in how
the Healthcare insurance company determines the
kind of coverage and price of premiums. Wellness
programs are beneficial that have different parts to
the program.
1. Bruce Jacobs.“RIP wellness ROI?” Benefits Selling.
BreakingNews. February 10, 2014.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Rachel Weick.”Insuranceprovider services may
reduce employer costs.” Grand Rapids Business
Journal.April 7,2014.3
5. Len Strazewski. “Wellness Programs A Good
Investment?” Voluntary Benefits Special Report. July
2014.62-63
6. Ibid.
Endnotes
7. Bruce Jacobs.“RIP wellness ROI?” Benefits Selling.
BreakingNews. February 10, 2014.
8. Len Strazewski. “Wellness Programs A Good
Investment?” Voluntary Benefits Special Report. July
2014.62-63
9. Ibid.
10. Hangsheng Liu, Soeren Mattke, Katherine M. Harris,
Sarah Weinberger, Seth Serxner, John P. Caloyeras,
and Ellen Exum. “Do WorkplaceWellness Programs
Reduce Medical Costs? Evidence from a Fortune 500
Company.” Inquiry:The Journal of Health Care
Organization,Provision,and Financing.150-158
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.