Responding to the increasing cost of employer-provided health insurance, some employers have instituted a number of cost-savings efforts such as reduced benefits, limited access, increased copayments, differential premiums and wellness programs. Of interest in this article are cost abatement efforts that focus on lifestyle behaviors that can adversely influence insurance costs. If such efforts are to succeed, it will require employee acceptance of these efforts. This article presents information that identifies lifestyle behaviors that might reasonably receive support for such differential treatment.
Park, C.H. ( 2000). Prevalence of employer self-insured health benefits: National and state variation. Medical Care Research and Review , 57(3), 340-360.
2.
U.S. Department of Labor Statistics. ( 2007). National compensation survey: Employee benefits in private industry in U.S. Available from http://www.bls.gov .
3.
Ibid.
4.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce. ( 2008). Chamber survey employers pay more for benefits. Available from http://www.uschamber.com/publications/reports/benefits.htm .
5.
Park (2000).
6.
Covel, S., & Spors, K.K. ( 2008, June 26). Providing health benefits on a budget. The Wall Street Journal, p. B6.
7.
Kapur, K. ( 2004). The impact of the health insurance market on small firm employment. Journal of Risk and Insurance, 71(1), 63-90.
8.
Monheit, A.C. , & Schone, B.S. (2003). How has small group market reform affected employee health insurance coverage? Journal of Public Economics, 88, 237-254.
9.
Monheit, A.C. , & Vistnes, J.P. (1999). Health insurance availability at the workplace. Journal of Human Resources, 34(4), 770-785.
10.
Park (2000).
11.
Knight, V.E. (2008, January 16). Wellness programs may face legal tests. The Wall Street Journal, p. D9.
12.
Ibid.
13.
Zhang, J. ( 2008, June 4). Lawsuits test disabilities act. The Wall Street Journal, pp. D1, D6.
14.
Covel & Spors (2008).
15.
Feinberg, D. (2007). Managed care. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 17(3), 391-392.
16.
Hodge, J. ( 2006). Lowering healthcare premiums by increasing staff wellness . Nursing Homes, 55(11), 66-69.
17.
Rubenstein, S. (2005, October 24). Keeping workers healthy pays off at Dow Chemical. The Wall Street Journal Online. Available from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113011180643877125.html.
18.
Wellness; MacAllister machinery reduces healthecare costs, improves employee health with CareGuide’s predictive modeling and health coaching program. (2007, October 13). Obesity, Fitness, and Wellness Week, p. 375.
19.
Rubenstein (2005).
20.
Wellness (2007).
21.
Hansen, F. ( 2009). Currents in compensation and benefits. Compensation & Benefits Review, 41(5), 5-20.
22.
Long, D.A. ( 2006). The cost of lifestyle health risk: Obesity. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 48(3), 244-251.
