Last month I shared a long-form read on health care costs titled "The Bitter Pill." That might've been what CVS felt they swallowed when they saw their name splashed across the virtual front pages of Fox News, The Huffington Post, The Today Show, The Washington Post, and The Boston Herald, who "broke the story" about a CVS health care surcharge. CVS, these stories reported, plans to fine employees $600 a pop if they don't get a health screening that collects height, weight, body fat, and cholesterol levels.
I use quotations because there was no story to break. CVS was tying a penalty to inaction, an approach taken by a considerable number of employers today, with more to come this year and next. At least the reporting on the surcharge was accurate. CVS was also slammed for their intention to force employees to reveal private health information. This misleading information left individuals seriously concerned. I received tweets from friends asking whether or not this was legit. It's not. What CVS is doing with their surcharge and how they are collecting this data is common practice. If you look at the 18th Annual Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Health Care, you'll find:
37% of companies structure employee contributions based on employees taking specific steps (e.g., health assessments)
36% plan to use penalties in 2014 for individuals not completing requirements of health management programs
54% require employees to complete a health risk appraisal/biometric screening to be eligible for financial incentives
The Towers Watson/NBGH study and the others that paint the same story are depicting a world where employers increasingly demand more "skin in the game" from employees. That skin is going to come in the form of choices—choices each employee must make. Do I shop around for cheaper health alternatives or run down my health savings account sooner? Do I lose weight or pay more? Do I quit smoking or lose my job?
But from the employers' perspective, you can well imagine their urgency. Facing spiraling costs and employees bedeviled by the difficulty of swapping less healthy habits for healthier ones, employers are moving ahead with new tactics. Like it or not.
This doesn't mean we should approach this shift with a big shrug. Companies moving in this direction need to pay more attention to how they implement and communicate these changes. As the CVS tale shows, misunderstanding can be the most bitter pill of all.
Tread Lightly: Labels that Translate Calories into Walking Distance Could Induce People to Eat Less "New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's campaign to limit sugary drinks is losing juice, but an idea the city has used to convey caloric information about these beverages might actually have legs. Public awareness posters used by the campaign showed the number of miles a person would have to walk to burn off the calories in a 20-ounce soda, and new research suggest that physical activity-based conversions such as these can actually persuade people to make healthier choices."
Hard Math: Adding Up Just How Little We Actually Move "All the movements a person does during the day—from getting up to close the garage to rocking in a chair—are non-scheduled physical activities that can make a big difference in terms of daily calorie expenditure by causing a person's metabolism to increase, says Gabriel Koepp, program manager of the Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) laboratory at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn."
One of the more popular posts on free-range communication in March was a post asking if we should teach employees how to say "no." A particularly rough patch at work and home led me to wonder whether this lesson was as important as teaching employees to eat better, move more, and smoke less. I welcome your thoughts.
In March I joined a panel at South by Southwest (SXSW) to talk about the perils of uninterrupted sitting. My fellow panelists were Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, an economist, management consultant and blogger and Dr. Peter Katzmarzyk, a noted researcher from Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Sharon Mandler, a vice president with Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness, facilitated our conversation. While our session wasn't taped, we did compile our stockpile of information into a slideshare for your reference.
