Reuters Money

Consultant Joe Ellis tries to maintain a healthy lifestyle. He doesn’t smoke, keeps his weight in check and gets to the gym when he can. But last year, he decided he needed to do more.

As a senior vice president in the Plymouth Meeting, Pa., office of CBIZ, he advises small companies about methods they can use to control their healthcare costs — including putting wellness plans in place. So he decided to walk the talk and enroll in a wellness plan himself.

For six months in 2010, Ellis chatted by phone with a health coach, who taught him how to read food labels and got him started on a four-times-a-week workout routine. Ellis’ body fat percentage dropped from 21 percent to 17 percent. “I found myself feeling a little sharper,” he says. And by adhering to the program, he’s saving $500 a year on his health-plan premium. “That’s worth getting to the gym for,” he says.

Americans are finding an increasing array of options for getting fit, and their employers are making it worth their while, with premium discounts, gym memberships — and sometimes even cold, hard cash. The trend is being driven by a number of factors, not the least of which is a pressing need for employers to lower their healthcare bills. Helping employees stop smoking, lose weight and manage their stress can pay off, Ellis says. “For every dollar they spend [on wellness], they’re saving $3 to $5.”

The new health reform law will likely encourage more companies to institute and expand wellness programs. The law provides $200 million in grants over the next five years to companies with fewer than 100 employees that want to start wellness programs. And under the law, all companies can now provide financial incentives for wellness participation of 30 percent of the total cost of insuring their employees — up from 20 percent before.

In a November 2010 survey by New York City HR consulting firm Buck Consultants, 66 percent of companies reported having a wellness strategy. And 12 percent of companies without one said they’d develop one in the next two years. Barry Hall, a principal with Buck, says these programs have evolved from simple gym discounts to full-blown programs that are offered to all employees regardless of health status.

Some companies have put employees in teams and started “Biggest Loser”-style weight-loss competitions. Others are giving cash rewards based on factors such as percentage of weight lost or cholesterol lowering. “Today’s employers are trying to figure out how they can get all employees engaged in a healthier lifestyle,” Hall says.

At Rockford Achromatic, an 80-employee firm in Rockford, Ill., nearly everyone participates in a weight-loss program, says risk manager Jim Knutson. Each one percent of weight loss earns them $4 a quarter. And employees are placed into three-person teams, which compete for prizes worth up to $150. The company’s workforce has lost 400 pounds total in five years. And now Rockford is applying for one of the new federal grants, so the company can expand the program. “We want to tie in blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar — all the factors that contribute to basic health,” Knutson says.

Many companies offer all sorts of financial help to smokers who want to kick the habit. According to the Buck survey, 50 percent of U.S. employers provide counseling to smokers who want to quit, and 24 percent give free stop-smoking medications.

Fact is, it wouldn’t take much of a lifestyle shift to drastically improve the health of the American workforce. Study after study has shown that a half hour of moderate exercise — such as walking or gardening — three to five times a week cuts the prevalence of age-related diseases such as heart disease. For example, a study by the Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas, which followed 13,000 men and women for eight years, found that death rates dropped dramatically among people who took half-hour walks a few times a week. It’s no wonder companies are catching on to the advantages of doling out cash to workers who become fit.

A growing number of businesses are also embracing stress management as a get-well strategy. The Buck survey found that 39 percent of companies are offering counseling on work/life balance, for example, and 27 percent offer yoga and meditation.

CBIZ’s Ellis has been downloading meditation tapes to help manage his stress. He switched gyms so he could shake up his exercise routine. “At this point, it’s habitual,” he says of his wellness plan. As for whether more of his clients will embrace wellness — and reward their employees for getting healthy — he says the signs are pointing in a positive direction. “The visionary part of me says this is something that will stick.”