This new post by Kristen Madison appears on the Health Affairs Blog, as part of a series stemming from the Third Annual Health Law Year in P/Review event held at Harvard Law School on Friday, January 30, 2015.
Wellness programs have been enthusiastically embraced by employers seeking to promote health and hoping to control costs. On April 20, 2015, program proponents received long awaited news: the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a proposed rule clarifying how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) would apply to wellness programs. Many large employers likely breathed a sigh of relief upon reading the rule, but the rule is not final and may reignite a longstanding debate over the appropriate use of wellness incentives.
Wellness programs have become common in the workplace. A 2014 Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that among large employers offering health benefits, just over half offered an opportunity to complete a health risk assessment (HRA), a questionnaire that is often a gateway for the provision of health risk information and other wellness program components (Exhibit 12.8 in the Kaiser survey). A similar fraction offered biometric screenings (Exhibit 12.1), such as tests for cholesterol or blood pressure, or measurement of body mass index. Some screening programs test for cotinine, which is associated with nicotine exposure.
Some wellness programs offer financial incentives such as premium adjustments or gift cards. The 2014 survey found that more than half of large employers using HRAs provide incentives for their completion, and more than a third of these incentives equaled or exceeded $500 (Exhibit 12.10). A federally commissioned report prepared by RAND suggests that incentives are effective in increasing HRA completion. […]
Read the full article here.
