N e w s from E B R I 1100 13th St. NW  Suite 878  Washington, DC 20005 (202) 659-0670  www.ebri.org  Fax: (202) 775-6312 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 26, 2015 Contact: Stephen Blakely, EBRI, 202/775-6341, [email protected] Paul Fronstin, EBRI (author), 202/775-6352, [email protected]

New Research from EBRI:

Financial Incentives Boost Wellness Program Participation WASHINGTON—Offering financial incentives to workers to participate in workplace wellness programs has a big impact on the programs’ success, according to new research by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). Examining 2013 patient data with one large Midwest employer that enhanced its incentives to encourage participation in its wellness program, EBRI found a huge increase in the share of workers taking health risk assessments (HRAs) and biometric screenings, designed to identify chronic medical conditions. Specifically, EBRI found that a financial incentive in the form of a $20 per month premium discount increased participation in HRAs by 50 percentage points among members of unions that bargained for the incentive, and 22 percentage points among non-union members. Participation in biometric screenings went up even more, by 55 percentage points. “While most workers say they participate in these programs to improve their health, financial incentive are very effective at getting workers in the door,” said Paul Fronstin, director of EBRI’s Health Research and Education Program and co-author of the report. “There is a growing body of evidence that suggests workplace wellness programs may reduce health care spending, but workers have to participate for the programs to work.” With private- and public-sector employers spending some $660 billion on employmentbased health benefits in 2013, sponsors of health insurance plans are increasingly interested in ways to improve their workers’ health and productivity. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) created an inducement for wellness programs, allowing employers to provide financial incentives of as much as 30 percent (up from 20 percent) of the total cost of coverage when tied to participation in a wellness program. The provisions are expected to drive increased adoption

of this strategy, and there is already evidence to suggest that adding wellness program incentives is by far more commonplace among employers than other health plan changes. Besides the big increase in participation in wellness programs because of financial incentives, EBRI also found:  Biometric screenings led to an average increase of 0.31 annual prescription drug fills, with related spending higher by $56 per member per year. Otherwise, no significant effects of participation in HRAs or biometric screenings on utilization of health care services and spending were found.  The largest increase in medication utilization as a result of biometric screening was for statins, which are widely used to treat high cholesterol. This therapeutic class accounted for one-sixth of the overall increase in prescription drug utilization. Second were antidepressants, followed by ACE inhibitors (for high blood pressure), and thyroid hormones (for hypothyroidism).  Biometric screening also led to significantly higher utilization of biologic response modifiers and immunosuppressants. These specialty medications are used to treat autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis and are relatively expensive compared with nonspecialty medications. The added spending associated with the combined increase in fills of 0.02 was $27 per member per year—about one-half of the overall increase in prescription drug spending from those who participated in biometric screenings. The full report, “Financial Incentives, Workplace Wellness Program Participation, and Utilization of Health Care Services and Spending,” is published in the August 2015 EBRI Issue Brief, online at www.ebri.org The Employee Benefit Research Institute is a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit research institute based in Washington, DC, that focuses on health, savings, retirement, and economic security issues. EBRI conducts objective research and education to inform plan design and public policy, does not lobby and does not take policy positions. The work of EBRI is made possible by funding from its members and sponsors, which include a broad range of public, private, for-profit and nonprofit organizations. For more information go to www.ebri.org or www.asec.org

PR 1137 EBRI is now on Twitter!

Name: @EBRI

URL: http://twitter.com/EBRI

Sign up for our RSS feeds!

Financial Incentives Boost Wellness Program Participation

Aug 26, 2015 - information go to www.ebri.org or www.asec.org. PR 1137. EBRI is now on Twitter! Name: @EBRI. URL: http://twitter.com/EBRI. Sign up for our ...

141KB Sizes 1 Downloads 187 Views

Recommend Documents

Financial Incentives Boost Wellness Program Participation
Aug 26, 2015 - participation in its wellness program, EBRI found a huge increase in ... Spending,” is published in the August 2015 EBRI Issue Brief, online at.

Form - Financial Incentives Application.pdf
Provide three (3) bids or competitive quotes for proposed work with an itemized cost estimate. 24 x 36 Site Plan folded to 9” x 12” size for proposed building ...

Participation in an Educational or Research Program - Notification ...
There was a problem previewing this document. Retrying. ... Participation in an Educational or Research Program - Notification Form.pdf. Participation in an ...

Modeling Financial Incentives to Get the Unemployed ...
Mar 10, 2005 - We decompose the effects of a sanction system into micro, crowding, spillover and tax ... related to what we call the crowding effect (see below). .... Of course the number of observations is too small to make strong statements ... In

A WELLNESS PROGRAM AT WALDORF ASTORIA.pdf
Page 1 of 2. FROM STRESSED TO STILLNESS. Awakening the healing power of meditation through. insight and the intuitive nature of the breath for relief. and rejuvenation. POWER UP. Connect with your personal inner strength and design. inspirational lif

St. James R-1 Wellness Screening Incentive Program 2016 ...
St. James R-1 Wellness Screening Incentive Program 2016-2017_OCR.pdf. St. James R-1 Wellness Screening Incentive Program 2016-2017_OCR.pdf. Open.

Banking and Financial Participation Reforms, Labor ...
Sep 24, 2017 - participation in the banking system, and labor search to analyze the ...... specific job-finding and job-filling probabilities are defined as f(θj,t) = vj ...

Driving the Gap: Tax Incentives and Incentives for ...
The size of the bandwidth invokes the classic tradeoff between efficiency and bias. In our context ... First, technical issues make it more difficult to achieve the.

Call for Participation - SDumont
Technology Center). Puerto Rico. • University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. United States. • California o Institute for Digital Research and Education, University of. California Los Angeles (UCLA) o National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center

Participation Format.pdf
2 Tickets to Gala Night Dinner. - Speaker Slot ... todos os dispositivos de segurança e outros, funcionem. bem. 28 - Não ... Participation Format.pdf. Participation ...

On Countervailing Incentives
0q— 5(0) and substituting the transfer _V(()] away in the principal's objec- tive, the problem ..... R9) or F(0)— 1. In this case, the balance of incentives is unam-.

Call for Participation - SDumont
There will be hands-on activities for many of the sessions. ... Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), National Energy Research Scientific ... United States.

Wellness Policy.pdf
There was a problem previewing this document. Retrying... Download. Connect more apps... Try one of the apps below to open or edit this item. Wellness Policy.

Wellness Policy.pdf
Sign in. Page. 1. /. 4. Loading… Page 1 of 4. Page 1 of 4. Page 2 of 4. Page 2 of 4. Page 3 of 4. Page 3 of 4. Wellness Policy.pdf. Wellness Policy.pdf. Open.

Wellness policy.pdf
Page 1 of 1. MACON COUNTY R-IV SCHOOLS. HOME OF THE RAIDERS. John Dunham—Superintendent Zach Bruner—Principal. [email protected] [email protected]. 501 S. Main St. New Cambria, Missouri 63558. Office: 660-226-5615 www.mcr4.k12.mo.us. Ma

Wellness Policy.pdf
Therefore, it is the policy of Broadview Public School to include;. Community involvement to include input from parents, students, school food. service ...

Wellness Policy.pdf
with one another during meal or snack times, given concerns about allergies and other restrictions on. some children's diets. Rewards. Schools will limit the use ...

Wellness Policy.pdf
Jun 30, 2004 - Whereas, school districts around the country are facing significant fiscal and scheduling constraints; and. Whereas, community participation is ...

Creating a Wellness Tournament
Page 1 ... ments that do still offer both debate and individual events, creating a split sched- ... directors when they create their tournament schedule. Twelve-hour ...

The effect of financial hedging on the incentives for ...
Available online 8 February 2006. Abstract ..... A is the risk-aversion parameter that captures the stakeholder's degree of risk aversion. w is the stakeholder's total ...

Participation Report - Netherlands.pdf
There was a problem previewing this document. Retrying... Download. Connect more apps... Try one of the apps below to open or edit this item. Participation ...