NEW YORK – As employers look to save on healthcare spending, they’re giving wellness programs serious consideration. However, even though they’re expanding offerings beyond traditional wellness approaches, a majority of employers say they haven’t seen a measurable return on investment.
Only a third of respondents to a survey on healthcare wellness programs have reported modest reductions in healthcare costs as a result of wellness initiatives, said analysts from Buck Consulting, which gathered data on 555 programs internationally and released results last month.
That leaves some two-thirds of the survey’s respondents who haven’t achieved results yet, said Barry Hall, a principal for the New York-based firm. Even so, respondents appear committed to encouraging wellness among employees and trying innovative technology in the hope of achieving eventual savings.
“The majority of companies in the U.S. are doing it with the expectation of reducing their healthcare costs,” Hall said. High costs are “such a painful issue for almost every company that provides healthcare benefits. It’s turning into a competitive issue; a lot of employers are kind of desperate.”
On one hand, companies are attempting to cut expenses by offering consumer-directed healthcare plans, which are cheaper for employers but carry higher deductibles for workers. To improve health, companies are looking to wellness and disease management.
The survey, Buck Consulting’s first on wellness programs, found that 86 percent of responding organizations offered wellness programs. In addition to trying to reduce healthcare expenditures, the companies say they’re providing the programs to improve productivity, reduce employee absenteeism, improve workforce morale and attract and retain employees.
Some 77 percent of employers cited reducing healthcare costs as being very important, while 55 percent of employers named improving productivity and 50 percent listed reducing absenteeism.
Hall said employers are moving beyond traditional approaches, such as employee assistance programs and immunization, to wellness approaches based on the implementation of technology, such as personal health records and health portals. Such technology has the potential to provide more personalized information that can prompt employees to work at their health.
Despite the growing interest, it will take time for these programs, many of which are in their infancy, to return tangible benefits to employers, Hall said.
“Companies that have really shown success have been able to achieve some level of cultural change with wellness. That doesn’t happen overnight,” he said.
“Employers are still trying to figure out what works; it’s not a mature science.