What sort of employee responds favorably to enhanced wellness program incentives? The sort who should've been engaged much sooner.
That's what a study reported by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found when it examined before and after data gathered by a large employer that decided to enhance its incentives to boost participation.
The study reviewed data from employees who took part in the program before the increased incentives, culling out information about the completion of a health-risk assessment and undergoing biometric screenings.
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In other words, it compared employees experienced with wellness program participation to rookies.
What they found was that older male employees were most likely to have their first screening/HRA experience only after incentives were enhanced. These "late adopters" also tended to earn more than the early adopters, the study found.
The financial skew is important, EBRI said, because it could force plan designers to rethink initial incentives.
"This [higher wage earner factor] suggests that employers may need to consider incentive levels relative to income, since the opportunity cost of time will enter into individuals' wellness-program-participation decision. That is, higher earners will require greater incentives as compensation for their time spent completing an HRA or receiving a biometric screening," EBRI said.
The earlier engaged employees, as a group, tended to be healthier than the post-incentive engagers.
"Among those completing an HRA post-incentive, 7 percent were being treated for diabetes, 14 percent for high blood pressure, and 19 percent for high cholesterol (Figure 6). In contrast, among those who first completed an HRA pre-incentive, 5 percent were being treated for diabetes, 10 percent for high blood pressure, and 15 percent for high cholesterol. Similar prevalence rates and patterns for these chronic conditions were found when comparing the pre- and post-incentive biometric screening groups," researchers reported.
The study concluded that wellness plan designers need to be aware of who tends to sign on early for such plan components as HRAs and screenings so that incentives will induce the less healthy to engage early.
"Firms offering wellness programs should expect to have to employ financial and other incentives to encourage member participation. Relatively low financial rewards may attract the young and well. Higher financial incentives—while more costly for the employer in the short-run—may bring in older, less healthy employees who are consuming more health services, and accounting for a large proportion of health care spending. If wellness programs are effective at improving patient health, positive longer-term, returns-on-investment may support the use of high financial incentives," the researchers said.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
