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Weigh More, Pay More: What Do You Think?
26Jan2010 Filed under: Patrick, Sports & Health Author: Patrick
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Very bold. Whole Foods, ranked number 18 in Fortune Magazine’s 2010 Top 100 Companies To Work For, has introduced an employee discount program that gives you a better discount if you weigh less, or more specifically, have a lower BMI. Employees were informed of this from a letter sent out by the CEO, John Mackey. In the letter, he explains that it’s not a benefit per say, but more of an incentive for employees to be healthier, and in turn reduce health care costs.
On 2009, Whole Foods spent $150 million on health care costs for employees, so this is their creative way of helping reduce that figure moving forward. All employees receive a 20% discount, but this program will incentify people to the maximum 30% discount threshold off if they meet the cholesterol, BMI, blood pressure measures, and are a non smoker.
I personally think this is actually a good idea. Of course I’m not an expert on this kind of stuff and am not sure what challenges different body types have in meeting these expectations, but I think that a program that is going to help encourage people to be health, while helping the company’s bottom line, is very creative and outside the box. Giving employees a discount, to purchase smarter & healthier choices – where can they go wrong? I know that some people who are obese will have a much further way to go, which is where I’m not sure what I think, but at the same time, perhaps this program could save their life. It could be that extra motivation needed to get their butt in gear and get healthy before it’s too late.
This program is part of their company-wide “Heath Starts Here” initiative that encompasses promoting healthy choices, in-store education, recipes, aligning with other companies like Eat Right America, amongst other things.
On the flip side, do you feel that this is discrimination?
Weigh In…What do you think?
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(No Ratings Yet)2 Responses to “Weigh More, Pay More: What Do You Think?”
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Allan
January 26th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
Is this really the best way to go about trying to make your employees more healthy? I don’t think so. There are so many discriminatory issues here – medical problems, emotional problems that lead to weight issues (and keep in mind that emotional issues that may require counseling are more than likely services that are not available to someone on a Whole Foods salary scale), ect…
There most likely will be in house cliques that quickly form that can lead to problems for the company as well. As if healthy, fit people don’t already pick on fat people…
And what about those people that lead healthy lives and just don’t meet the numbers? I’m a little guy who goes to the gym and eats very little and there were times when I lived in Vancouver that Fitness World would give me very varying BMI readings.
I think it’s great that Whole Foods wants to make their employees healthier but I don’t think that this “out of the box” way of doing it is inclusive and supports to all their staff.
It’s a no for me.
Kim Fenske
February 7th, 2010 at 8:33 am
Wellness programs are now widespread in both the public and private sector, created to achieve cost-savings and improve employee health. The programs should be designed for broad participation. As Feifei Wang, PhD, expresses, “Most of the wellness programs reach only a small portion of the target population.”
Wellness program advisors express a consensus on strategies to build effective plans. Most importantly, they believe that a target population should be the source of ideas concerning the development of program activities and incentives. Every participant should be awarded incentives in an individualized, non-competitive manner. Appropriate rewards may be time off; reduced health insurance co-payments; recreational equipment or facilities; and discounts for recreational health activities.
A wellness program that rewards individuals only on narrow criteria as body mass, blood pressure, and cholesterol is flawed. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, any wellness program should avoid rewards for biometric data and competitive incentives.
A program that only rewards participants with a “normal” BMI below 24.9 excludes participants. Currently, about 55% of Americans exceed BMI 25. If they perceive that attaining BMI 24.9 is unrealistic, individuals from whom costly medical risks arise will reject the program.
Historically, the range of “normal” BMI extended to 25.8 for women and 26.4 for men. Steven Halls, MD, estimates that “normal” BMI for men should extend to 27. Furthermore, increased medical and drug costs begin at BMI 27, according to a large-scale study by Feifei Wang, PhD, et. al. The steepest increases in costs are below BMI 19 and above BMI 30.
Medical cost increases are approximately 4% per BMI from 27 to 45. Drug cost increases are estimated at 7% per BMI unit. Therefore, any improvement saves money and should be rewarded.
Blood pressure levels provide another example. Lowering the average blood pressure of participants may be a noble goal. However, requiring a participant to achieve a blood pressure reading less than or equal to 120/80, perceived as a “normal” standard, is not helpful. Prehypertension, blood pressure between 120/80 and 140/90, may affect one-third of the population. However, medical studies indicate that prehypertension is misdiagnosed in up to 43% of patients due to errors such as variations in readings and the elevated pressure created by “white coat” syndrome, measuring in a clinical setting.
According to Laura P. Svetkey, MD, changes in diet and exercise can lower blood pressure 7 points; weight loss of ten pounds can lower systolic pressure another 4 points. Therefore, an attainment criteria of 120/80 forces health care providers to become drug pushers, increasing health care costs and endangering the health of patients with pressure readings only slightly above “normal.”
Therefore, any successful wellness program will reject specific biometric criteria. The attainment of improved health among the members of a group is dependent on the infusion of ideas and participation from the bottom to top of an organization, not unfunded mandates from aloof comptrollers on high.