Over the years, many articles and studies have explored theeffectiveness of wellness programs. For every one that saysthey're great and wonderful, there's another one thatsays they're completely useless. So, who's right?

Recently, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaignattempted to clear the air with a comprehensive year-long study to get to thebottom of it once and for all. The results weren't pretty. In fact,they found no significant effects on medical expenditures, healthbehaviors, or productivity.

Plot twist

I guess that means it's game over for us and we might as wellpack it up and call it a day. But there's just one catch: whilethese findings may seem to provide a final verdict on wellnessprograms and have the naysayers shouting, “I told you so,” theresearch actually syncs up with our own internal data. Studies likethis are always going to be flawed, because one year just isn'tenough time to show meaningful results or significant cost savings. As a matter of fact,many companies see an increase in medical spending during the firsttwo years as program members become more aware of health issues andvisit their physicians more often