Health Promotion International, Vol. 14, No. 1, 43-51,
March 1999
© Oxford University Press 1999
Do employees participating in voluntary health promotion programs incur lower health care costs?
Assistant Professor, Consumer Economics, Department of Health and Human Development, Montana State University, 106 Herrick Hall, Bozeman, MT 59717, 1 Assistant Professor, Health Promotion, Health Promotion Programming, Planning, and Evaluation, Department of Health and Human Development, Montana State University, 122 Hosaeus Complex, Bozeman, MT 59717 and 2 Professor, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Economics and Economics, Montana State University, Linfield Hall 307C, Bozeman, MT 59715, USA
Address for correspondence: George Haynes, Department of Health and Human Development, Montana State University, 106 Herrick Hall Bozeman, MT 59717, USA
During the past two decades there has been a rapid increase in the number of wellness activities within public and private companies. A rationale for implementing worksite wellness programs has been the assumption that wellness programming can contain health-related costs. This investigation examined the relationship between health insurance costs and employee wellness program participation using a sample of 1757 university employees over a 3-year period. Based upon empirical models and analytic techniques that are appropriate for these investigations, the authors suggest that voluntary wellness programs may face a serious adverse selection problem in that relatively unhealthy individuals may self-select into wellness programming. Specifically, the authors show that employees who participate in worksite wellness programming incur higher rather than lower health claims costs.
Key words: cost benefit; cost containment; health promotion; wellness