I think he means that they promote the aspects of wellness that are easily observable, because these are the things that an insurer pays attention to when setting a price.

For instance, an insurer won't take any interest in your diet, because that's hard to measure, but they will take a keen interest in your BMI and cardiovascular fitness.

Thanks. Makes sense.

A genuine wellness program would, for instance, give employees discounts on commercial fitness gym memberships or certain categories of foods, offer compensatory time off for hours worked in excess of 40 in any given week, sponsor moderated team obesity reduction contests, sponsor smoking cessation support efforts, sponsor athletic clubs and events for employees, give vitamin D reminders throughout the cold, dark winter months, etc.

The typical "wellness program" gives you a $X discount over the plan year in exchange for a 3rd-party call center company to collect your health information and nag you to not be so unhealthy over the phone at regular intervals. They have to tiptoe around ADA and anti-discrimination laws. The insurance discount is wholly insufficient to pay for any measure that would genuinely impact health. Given the choice between giving employees a direct $120 a year benefit for gym membership and splitting $50 discount to the employee and $70 expense to a professional call center nag, the group insurer invariably picks the latter.

You see, if you just give away the fitness gym membership, there's no leverage to make the employee actually go there and work out.

My current company invites people to get free blood pressure checks from staff of the local hospital system. I am not fooled by this. This is not motivated by concern for my health, but as a means to monitor the blood pressure of employees who already feel they must do so. The measurement is free, during business hours. Any intervention that might improve health, such as counseling or medication, has to come from the employee's own pocket, on their own time.

Thanks for going into detail, as this is my view - developed over several instances of observing such programs, and, in actuality, having worked in a back-office support role for a firm that actually sold these programs. Your write up is essentially what I was alluding to, and I appreciate you sharing your perspective so I don't feel, well, uselessly paranoid or underwhelmed by the "offer" in the grand scheme of things. Now that you mention it, I wonder if dropping some information on the 'Wellness Caller' about my ADA-protected disability and then asking if they're HIPAA compliant would be a fun little wrinkle to explore...