Are Wellness Programs Cost Effective?

You know there’s a hot debate around an issue when people on both sides of the matter insist that there’s really no debate at all.

Such is the case with corporate wellness programs, in general, and whether they can be expected to deliver a positive financial outcome for the company, in particular. The debate has been simmering along for a few years, but it may come to a boil as 2018 nears.

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That’s when employers will face an onerous, perhaps even ruinous 40% excise tax on health benefits costing above threshold amounts, as stipulated by the Affordable Care Act. Many companies are looking at wellness programs as a key element of their quest to hold down costs and thereby escape the so-called “Cadillac Tax.”

Will those be prudent investments? Here are four distinctly differing takes on the financial implications of these programs:

http://www.cfo.com/health-benefits/2015/06/obamacares-worst-idea-support-wellness-programs/

http://www.cfo.com/health-benefits/2015/06/wellness-programs-work-properly-designed/

http://www.cfo.com/health-benefits/2015/06/claims-wellness-cost-savings-overblown-rand/

http://www.cfo.com/health-benefits/2015/06/belief-wellness-savings-may-require-leap-faith-theyre-real/

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