Tag Archives: wellness incentives

Behavioral Economists Challenge Outcomes-Based Wellness Incentives

I’ve had to eat so much crow since I started posting on this blog, you’d think I would’ve acquired a taste for it by now. My latest sampling was served up courtesy of  behavioral economists and their connection, or lack thereof, to outcomes-based employee health incentives.

In one of my least popular posts ever, Be Afraid: Behavioral Economics and Outcomes-Based Wellness (May 2011), I criticized corporate benefits managers who, I argued, relied on the research of behavioral economists to Continue reading →

Deconstructing the ShapeUp Survey’s Findings about Incentives

According to the ShapeUp Employer Wellness Survey, the average per employee per year incentive is $375.

I’ll take a pass, for now, on discussing the role of incentives in motivating behavior change. That topic is being well covered in all corners of the wellness world.

Let’s take a look at this number, $375. While ShapeUp wrote in its blog, and its webinar debate, that this is the average per employee per year (PEPY) incentive, I suspect that they were being more precise when they stated in their survey results that $375 was Continue reading →

2010's Top 10 Developments in Employee Wellness

Here, in no particular order, are the Employee Wellness Network‘s picks for 2010′s Top 10 Developments in Employee Wellness:

  1. The Washington Post reveals what most employee benefit managers long suspected: “Misleading claims about Safeway wellness incentives shape health-care bill.” Safeway disagrees.
  2. A new study lends credence to return-on-investment (ROI) claims. In the February issue of Health Affairs, a meta-analysis suggests that medical costs fall by $3.27 and absenteeism costs fall by $2.73 for every dollar spent on employee wellness programs.
  3. A newer study casts doubt on ROI claims. In July 2010, a study by the National Institute for Health Care Reform concludes, “ROI is uncertain and measurement Continue reading →