A healthier lifestyle is key to cutting health care costs, and wellness programs can be the key to that healthier lifestyle.

So said experts in a hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and Lamar Alexander, R-TN, backed them up. A Healthcare Finance News report says that testimony before the committee was given in the context of employer-sponsored health plans, pointing toward steps that employers can take to improve employees’ health and help offset the health care system’s costs.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics indicate that while in 1980 health care costs only accounted for 9 percent of gross domestic product, by 2017 that has ballooned to about $2.3 billion, with no indication of slowing down. Controlling weight and cholesterol, as well as quitting smoking, can be effective ways to boost wellness, but people need incentives to participate—and testimony pointed toward how effective those incentives can be.