A recent article on CFO.com asked "Do Wellness Programs Make Cents?".[1] The article addresses the concerns about how to measure return on investment from employee health improvement programs. One of the problems is that many companies aren't accurately capturing costs and benefits of such programs. Another complicating factor is that many companies use multiple vendors (on average 2 - 5) with no common mechanism for measuring outcomes. This points out the importance of having a plan for managing and measuring program costs and outcomes. The article goes on to say that of the 40% of the companies that do track ROI, half say they see a 2:1 ROI. One quarter see greater returns, one quarter are breaking even or losing money.

Two recently published studies on ROI indicated that there are significant cost benefits available from worksite health promotion programs. A study published in the January/February 2010 issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion[2] found that health plan members who participated in fitness-related activities within an incentive-based program had significantly lower medical costs. The study was conducted with 948,974 adult members of South Africa's larges private insurer. Hospitalization costs for members were shown to decrease based on activity type (highly engaged, low engagement, not engaged). The most engaged group had lower annual medical costs, admission rates and cost per admission.

In the February 2010 issue of Health Affairs[3], a meta-analysis of literature on costs and savings associated with worksite wellness programs found that medical costs fall $3.27 for every dollar spent on wellness programs and that absenteeism costs fall by about $2.73 for every dollar spent. This study concludes "review of the existing evidence suggests that employer-based wellness initiatives may not only improve health, but may also result in substantial savings over even short-run horizons."

These recent studies provide additional evidence of the cost benefits of worksite wellness programs. They do not, however, specifically address other benefits to employers such as improved morale, reduced turnover or lower short- or long-term disability. The benefits abound, but as the CFO at one AdvancingWellness client is fond of saying "It's not just about the money, it's about the people."