Ask HN: Do wellness incentives help employers save money on taxes and insurance?

Re:Ask HN: Do wellness incentives help employers save money ... by npace12 on Monday April 25, 2016 @11:06AM (#11564657)

I'm not necessarily an expert in this, but myself and my team just finished building a wellness product for a company that provides wellness portals for other companies. Yes, they save on insurance costs. A lot of big companies run their own insurance plans and are able to negotiate better rates and credits if they can simply show that:

1. They provide a way for their employees to build healthy habits

2. As a result, if their employees complete certain milestones, (such as filling out Personal Health Assessments or attending screening events) they can get discounts.

I imagine this would become more sophisticated in the future, maybe providing better rates if a company can show that their employees are consistently improving their health year over year.

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Re:Ask HN: Do wellness incentives help employers save money ... by theforceawakens on Monday April 25, 2016 @11:43AM (#11564952)

Thanks so much. Is there any documentation online that you know of which has more information?

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Re:Ask HN: Do wellness incentives help employers save money ... by npace12 on Monday April 25, 2016 @11:51AM (#11565026)

I don't unfortunately. The discount/credit requirements can vary a lot from what I've seen though. Some companies require you to do certain things like track certain vitals, while others just want a PHA filled out. Those goals are usually passed on to employees in the form of gift cards/cash in order to incentivize them to actually do these things. The product we built was effectively a CMS that allows it to be customized for each client.

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Re:Ask HN: Do wellness incentives help employers save money ... by theforceawakens on Monday April 25, 2016 @01:18PM (#11565716)

Thanks. From your info, I was able to surface that there could be tax implications (if the incentives are offered as non-fringe/taxable benefits), from an employee standpoint.

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