It's an issue all employers struggle with - incentives.   Should we use them?  Do they work?  Which ones work best?   How should we change the incentives we already have?   

Joanne Sammer recently had an article published in Business Finance which seems to indicate that incentives may work, at least in getting people to enroll in a wellness program (her review is based on smoking cessation).  What is less clear is whether the incentives are cost effective.  As always, determining this is difficult and may require long- term study.

The outcome on which she reported was based on a study of 878 large employers performed by The Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion.  The findings were exactly what you would hope for and expect.  Those who received an incentive were far more likely to participate, and continued incentives upon completion also increased at least the short-term success rates (18-months), as measured by biochemical testing.  To see her article, click here.

In reviewing her work and others, we wonder about "disincentives" and the fact that the American workforce does not seem to react to the personal cost of bad health care choices.  There is a fine line between incentives, disincentives, and simply tailoring the workforce to become better consumers with improved life styles.  For a treatment of the idea of disincentive programming, look at Weyco where Howard Weyers simply began a program to have a tobacco-free workforce.  You can read about his adventures in designing a smoke-free employee and dependent population here. 

More unusual, we found a brief article about the Medical College of Wisconsin seeking partners to work with to train primary care physicians, and QuadMed in Sussex, Wisconsin is on the initial list of those entities under consideration.  Wow!  An on-site clinic as a training ground for physicians - who would have imagined this five years ago?

The big opening that is coming up in a few days is BP / Houston.  They have selected TakeCare as an on-site vendor from a select field of highly-qualified respondents, and they will open the doors to their new employee health care site this next week.  The management of this process - development of the physical facility and the programming to go with it - goes largely to their HR and project management team, headed by Greg Dagley and Karl Dalal.  The process was engaged after they visited what many consider to be "best in class" installations and then, and only then, did they embark upon the planning of their own.  The health center will be one of the few in the country that includes primary care, optical, dental, imaging, lab, and other employee support services.  We will have a complete rundown on our Web site when the press kits become available.

Those of you who are members in the National Business Group on Health already know about their EMPAQ tool (and if you don't, you should).   It is free to members and allows you to securely upload data from your company in eight different measurement areas:  short-term disability, long-term disability, worker's compensation, group health, family and medical leave, incidental and integrated absence, EAP, and health management.    

You can use all or only a few of the metrics for benchmarking.  Per the NBGH Web site, the EMPAQ tool ". . provides employers with credible benchmarking data to assist them in evaluating the performance of their benefits programs, as well as provide insight into how they compare to similar companies in their industry sector."  Check it out at  businessgrouphealth.org and search for EMPAQ. 

And, as happens all the time, new resources are available for you at Welcoa.  For many "expert interviews," studies, and articles, click here. All are free, they cover a wide range of topics, and they are very timely.