New Research Raises Questions About Effectiveness Of Workplace Wellness Programs

From The Center Square:

By Scot Bertram

New research from the University of Illinois suggests workplace wellness programs could be essentially worthless.

After a two-year study that included more than 4,800 university employees, researchers found that such programs have little impact on employee health, health beliefs and medical utilization.

“What we've found is that the wellness program is really popular,” said David Molitor, a professor of finance at the school’s Gies College of Business and co-author of the report. “But we observed no differences in most measures of health or productivity after one or even after two years of running the program.”

Workplace wellness programs have become more prevalent following the passage of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Among large U.S. firms offering health benefits in 2019, 84 percent also offered a workplace wellness program. Molitor said the specifics of programs vary, but typically include screenings, health risk assessments and wellness activities.

“Wellness programs are widely touted to do all kinds of things: to reduce healthcare costs, to improve employee health, to improve productivity, to reduce the number of sick days employees take,” Molitor said. “Our main thing was to identify what these programs really do and who do they benefit.”

The wellness program did result in two self-reported health outcomes, increasing the proportion of employees who have a primary care physician and improving employee beliefs about their own health.

Molitor said that one reason for the lack of results is that these programs largely appeal to people who are healthy.

“There’s a segment of the population that is really hard to reach and generic, broad-brush wellness programs might not be the most effective ways to reach those individuals,” Molitor said.

Additionally, a previous study released last year by the same researchers failed to show any of the promised financial benefits.

“We did look at more of these economic outcomes like costs and we found no effects on those outcomes either,” Molitor said. “There was no evidence that the program, despite lots of participation, reduced costs, at least not in the first two years.”

In light of the new information, Molitor said business leaders might want to re-think how they execute their efforts to improve employee health.

“I think employers should be careful about how they evaluate the programs that they're selecting,” Molitor said. “Another thing is to think carefully about whether investing in a wellness program is really where their workers want them to invest. There are lots of different ways that employers can be investing in worker health and safety.”

University researchers plan to continue the study to see if there are longer-term benefits associated with the programs.

“We're not necessarily disappointed when we find out that something doesn't work,” Molitor said. “That's really useful to kind of understand this wasn't working so we can shift our focus to figure out what does work.”

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