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WASHINGTON - Safeway's Healthy Measures program - a wellnessdriven healthcare program that incentivizes employees to pursue healthier lifestyles - happens to be the real-world example on which a recent amendment to healthcare reform was based.
Sens. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Tom Carper, D-DeL, members of the Senate Finance Committee, late last month won strong support from both sides of the congressional aisle for an amendment to the Senate Finance Committee's healthcare reform bill that will encourage Americans to lead healthier lifestyles as part of an effort to lower their overall healthcare costs.
"There is a general consensus that investments in employer-sponsored wellness programs reduce overall healthcare costs for employers and employees, and generate savings for our healthcare system as a whole," the National Retail Federation, along with a host of other associations, penned in a letter addressed to Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, DMont. "Evidence suggests that incentives, such as premium discounts, encourage participation in wellness programs."
Those savings could equate to a return of $4.80 for every $1 invested into a wellness program, California state controller John Chiang wrote in a September letter to the California Congressional Delegation around the importance of including wellness programs in any healthcare reform package: "A recent study by the Trust for America's Health and the Prevention Institute found that an investment...