Health Care Bill Pushes Employers to Promote Wellness Among Workers

In the United States, due to a provision in the Senate version of the health-care reform bill, private employers will be pushed to create a “culture of health” for employees in the workplace.
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Up until now in the United States wellness programs in the workplace were private-sector initiatives – between an employer and worker- the government was not involved.� As a result of the latest health care bill drafted by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee , this could all change.�

The bill creates tax incentives for employers to implement workplace wellness programs and directs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to evaluate employers for the effectiveness of their wellness programs. The findings from these evaluations will then be reported to Congress.

Criticisms have already arisen due to this new bill.� Devon Herrick, senior fellow for the National Center for Policy Analysis, a free-market think tank, has said that getting the government involved could undermine the already existing wellness initiatives by the private sector.�

“Employers are free to offer plans now and experiment with what works,” Herrick told CNSNews.com. “This would stifle experimentation. An employer’s wellness plan may not be designed to meet the specifications of the bureaucrats at the CDC.”

The Affordable Health Choices Act, approved by the Senate HELP Committee, includes a “workplace wellness marketing campaign.” President Barack Obama and supporters believe this will lead to a healthier workforce thus lower costs for business.

Critics argue it amounts to an unfunded mandate on businesses.

The bill increases the amount that employers can reward employees for participating in wellness programs from a 20% to 30% premium discount.

The legislation also says, “The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in coordination with relevant worksite health promotion organizations, state and local health departments, and academic institutions, shall conduct targeted educational campaigns to: 1) make employers, employers groups and other interested parties aware of the benefits of employer-based wellness, 2) establish a culture of health by emphasizing health promotion and disease prevention; 3) emphasize an integrated and coordinated approach to workplace wellness; and 4) ensure informed decisions through high quality information to organizational leaders.”

Approximately 75% of the United States’s annual health care costs are associated with chronic illness. Chronic illness affects more than one-third of working Americans.
Employer medical costs have jumped 72% from 2000 to 2006.

Although the legislation does not mandate that employers participate in the program, it calls for “developing standardized measures that assess policy, environmental and systems changes necessary to have a positive health impact on employees’ health behaviors, health outcomes, and health care expenditures; and evaluating such programs as they relate to changes in the health status of employees, the absenteeism of employees, the productivity of employees, the rate of workplace injury, and the medical costs incurred by employees.”

The legislation also calls for “training employers on how to evaluate employer-based wellness programs by ensuring evaluation resources, technical assistance, and consultation are available to workplace staff as needed through such mechanisms as web portals, call centers, or other means.”

Also, the CDC would “conduct national worksite health policies and programs survey to assess employer based health policies and programs,” then report those findings to Congress.

Read more here�

Posted by: suhujitha on 2009-08-12 10:43:40

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