"In 2014, the Affordable Care Act will provide additional provisions for health and wellness initiatives. Only 25.8 percent of the organizations surveyed indicate having any plans to take advantage of the wellness provisions offered in the ACA. This is partially due to either a lack of understanding of the benefits offered (15.9 percent) or lack of desire to take advantage (19.3 percent).

"There are a number of reasons why companies should look at taking advantage of the ACA provisions. Starting in 2014, employers can raise the total amount of financial incentives offered from 20 percent to 30 percent of the organization's health care plan costs. The ceiling goes to 50 percent for smoking cessation programs. This allows organizations to raise the financial incentives offered to employees who participate in the program, and can lead to increased savings while gaining the positive return on investment."

Companies that take advantage of the law's provisions are likely to have happier and more engaged workers, said Chris Boyce, CEO, Virgin HealthMiles. "The opportunity to increase your wellness incentives enables you to further customize your corporate wellness initiative and make sure you're offering a comprehensive and diversified set of programs that best meet the needs of your workforce."

Other key conclusions from the study included:

Employees value health and wellness programs. In all, 87.2 percent of employees surveyed said they consider health and wellness packages when choosing an employer.

Health and wellness programs positively influence an organization's culture of wellness. Seventy percent of workers reported that wellness programs "positively influence the culture at work," and 57.5 percent say wellness program involvement "has had a positive influence on their colleagues, friends and family."

Incentives matter. Though the dominant motive for employee participation in health and wellness programs is to improve their health (78.2 percent), incentives are important — 61.4 percent of employees say the incentives they earn through participating in wellness programs are a key reason they participate.

Communication of benefits package information lacks clarity. Half of employees said "they are not aware of, or need to know more about, health and wellness programs offered by employers.

Metrics are a challenge. In contrast to last year's results, measurement was a much larger issue among employers this year. Only 31 percent of organizations reported that they were "satisfied with their health and wellness metrics." (Does anyone see a business opportunity here?)

Also of interest to benefits managers were the findings that compared benefits of interest to employees to the benefits offered by employers. For instance, only 12.7 percent of employees said they cared about smoking-cessation incentive programs, yet 50.3 percent of employers said they offered them. Nearly 80 percent of employees said they wanted healthy on-site food choices, but only a third of employers said they offered such choices.

Better matches were found in weight-management incentive programs: 56 percent of workers wanted them, and 49 percent of companies had them. Similarly, 36 percent of employees said they were interested in mental health management programs, and 38 percent of companies offer them.

The study was commissioned as part of National Employee Wellness Month.