Contests to lose weight. Cheap granola bars. Cash for buying fruits and vegetables.
As employers look for ways to lower health insurance costs, they’re increasingly turning to wellness programs that prod employees to make healthier choices.
The wellness programs are popular because they’re among the few ways that employers, who pay a large portion of the nation’s insurance bill, can try to control rising costs.
Eighty-three percent of large companies offer wellness programs to encourage workers to stop smoking, help employees lose weight or coach them on lifestyle or behavioral choices, according to a survey released in September by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Some companies are turning to fitness trackers such as Fitbit or Apple Watch to collect health information. Others offer financial incentives for workers willing to fill out health assessments or undergo biometric screenings.
But do they work?
The results have been mixed, but an in-depth study did find health improvements for those who participated in employee wellness programs.
Proponents say wellness programs can lower costs and make employees healthier and more productive, but skeptics say the savings are minimal and the long-term effects are unclear. And critics raise concerns about employers having access to worker health data or whether companies pressure workers to pay more if they can’t meet milestones.
A RAND Corporation study from 2013 found “statistically significant and clinically meaningful” improvements in participants’ exercise frequency and ability to control weight, for example, but the weight loss was limited to about one pound over a three-year period.
The region’s health insurance companies offer a range of programs that encourage workers to eat healthier, exercise more and watch their weight. The companies offer similar incentives to their own employees.
Here’s a look at what the area health insurance companies offer.
HealthNow New York
Headquarters: Buffalo
Employees: 2,000
Members: 900,000
For employees
- The insurer offers its Buffalo workers free memberships to its onsite fitness center. More than half of employees actively use the gym.
- BlueCross BlueShield subsidizes the cost of healthy food options in its cafeteria and in vending machines at its Buffalo headquarters. For example, a healthy granola bar is 50 cents cheaper than a bag of potato chips and 75 cents cheaper than a candy bar. In the cafeteria, a salad costs $5 while an order of chicken nuggets and fries costs more than $7.
For members
- Employers take part in a weight-loss contest, Lose to Win. In 2015, 25 groups signed up, with a 90 percent participation rate, and workers lost a combined 15,000 pounds in 2015 in the team-based contest.
- The insurer offers the Good Life Program, which features biometric screening, confidential online health assessment and assistance from BlueCross BlueShield coaches. The program is available to the insurer’s employees, too. On average, over the past five years, 94 percent of all participants completed the first two steps, and those who did saw improvements in their health. For example, the prevalence of high cholesterol fell from 41 percent of participants in 2011 to 16 percent in 2015.
Fidelis Care
Headquarters: New York City
Employees: 3,738 statewide
Members: over 1.5 million
For employees
- Employees can sign up for wellness challenges and connect their activity-tracking apps through an internal site called EveryMove. They can also sign up co-workers as friends, to cheer each other on and to send each other points once they’ve completed tasks.
- The company holds a quarterly challenge for the most activity points earned through the EveryMove site and gives out FitBits to winners. Fidelis Care handed out 20 of the devices in 2016.
For members
Note: Not applicable because Fidelis Care doesn’t sell commercial insurance.
Independent Health
Headquarters: Amherst
Employees: 1,100
Members: 400,000
For employees
Since 2007, Independent Health has offered a workplace wellness program, Healthy Me, through which employees are offered points for completing tasks such as taking a well-being assessment, volunteering at community events or regularly participating in physical activity. Employees who earn at least 250 points during the year earn a larger year-end bonus. In 2015, about 96 percent of the company’s employees had participated in Healthy Me and 88 percent of them met the 250-point goal.
For members
- Since 2014, Independent Health has offered FitWorks Prime, a wellness program that large-group employers can customize with their own fitness challenges and with workers’ health information. The program started with five employers and now includes 60 covering 60,000 lives. The insurer offers a related program, FitWorks Rewards, to small-group employers and individuals, and FitWorks Medicare for Medicare Advantage members.
- The company offers a nutrition benefit to encourage members to buy fruit and vegetables. For every $2 that members spend on fresh produce at Tops Markets, they receive a $1 credit toward future in-store purchases. Families can earn up to $1,000 annually; individuals can earn up to $500. Since the company introduced the benefit three years ago, 23,500 members have earned $1.86 million in rewards.
Univera Healthcare
Headquarters: Amherst
Employees: 468
Members: 60,000
For employees
- Univera in March added a telemedicine program, MDLive, on a pilot basis to the list of providers available to its workers. The company said 60 percent of its employees created an MDLive account and downloaded the app. About 8 percent of them have used the telemedicine option instead of going to an urgent care center or the emergency room for treatment.
- Univera offers employees $520 per year for undergoing blood draws and following a game plan to address health issues identified in the screening. About three-fourths of employees have participated in UniveraHealthyU. One sign of success is surveys showing employee smoking rates have dropped from 12 percent in 2010 to 2 percent in 2015.
For members
- The company on Jan. 1 started offering MDLive as the in-network telemedicine service to its private insurance and Medicare members. Employers also can add UniveraHealthyU to their coverage package.
- Univera launched ActiveRewards in 2007, offering cash or gift cards as incentives to members who engage in healthy behavior. Members can earn up to $1,000 annually. Someone who is a nonsmoker, or who quits smoking, for example, earns $40.
Date: February 07, 2017