2. Employers Widely Use Participation Incentives
• Employer participants in Aon Hewitt’s 2012 Health Care Survey indicated
they are more likely to use incentives to drive participation in wellness
programs:
o Participation in health risk questionnaires (HRQs) and
biometric screening are the two most popular programs where
incentives are offered to participate (84% and 64%,
respectively)
o 51% of the employers participating in the survey offer an
incentive for participation in health improvement/wellness
programs
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3. Conflict Over Penalties for Employees
• There is widespread support for wellness initiatives in
the workplace among both employers and employees. At
the same time, there is conflict over programs that tie
rewards or penalties to individuals achieving standards
related to health status—and especially over those
arrangements that affect employee health insurance
premiums or cost-sharing amounts.
Source: http://www.healthaffairs.org/healthpolicybriefs/brief.php?brief_id=69
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4. Participation-Based Programs Should Be Voluntary
• “Participation-based programs provide financial incentives or rewards to individuals
who participate in health education and awareness activities or complete health risk
assessments or other risk identification tools. For example, an employer offers gift
certificates to those who participate in a health fair or complete a biometric screening.
The incentives promote health education and encourage healthy behaviors rather
than focus on an employee’s health status. However, participation-based programs
should not be mandatory. Requiring employees to participate in order to receive an
incentive without taking into account barriers to participation such as health status or
other familial or work obligations could lead to even greater health disparities.
These programs should help participants achieve a better health status not create
barriers to affordable health care.”
Source: http://www.cpehn.org/pdfs/New_Wellness_Principlesv6.pdf
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