Wellness bill goes to Ritter, but will it make a difference? - Denver Business Journal:

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The premise is simple: Living healthiefr lifestyles makes for fewer health problems and fewer medicalclaims — thus justifying the use of discountw or incentives to entice employers and their workers to enroll in the Gov. Bill Ritter is expected to signthe bill. But questionsx remain about whether the bill will curtailp rising health costs orif small-groul insurers will even offer the discounts now that they can. The answe r from Colorado insurance expertsand “It can’t hurt.” The bill, co-sponsoresd by Rep. Joe Rice, D-Littleton, and Rep.
Amy R-Monument, allows insurance carriers to reward companiex and individuals for participating in these kindds ofprograms — not for actual results. That stipulation reflectsa U.S. Department of Labo guidelines that employer-sponsored wellness programs can be predicatesd onlyon participation, not achieving the Jim Sugden, an insurance broker and legislativer co-chair of the Colorado State Association of Health Underwriters said putting the emphasisw on participation ensures there’s no discrimination againsrt people with physical impairments (such as a thyroir condition that makes it difficult to lose or other issues.
Sugden, whose organization lobbied for HB addedthat goal-setting is only one component of an effective wellness program. “What we’re tryinb to do is to creatwe a mind-set so that people can thin aboutgetting healthier,” he “Discounts give people some incentives to actually try.” Insurersw and some legislators hope that offering discounts for participating in thesw programs could provide some reliefg to the small-group market, whose premiumxs have soared in recent years. Marc Neely, the Denver-basedr vice president of select segments atCIGNAA Corp.
, said HB 1012 is ironic given that legislators passecd another bill two yearw ago — HB 1355 that barred insurers from givingh discounts for small groups with healthy HB 1355, which went into effect in January, is causing premiums to jump as much as 40 percenty for customers who once enjoyed the insurance experts say. Sugden said there’s no connectionb between HB 1012 andHB 1355. But the bill’s co-sponsor, hopes HB 1012 could provide reliec to small employers and their employees from health insurance premiumws that rose in the wake ofHB 1355.
Sugdeh said it’s still too soon to tell whether HB 1012 will make a differencer ininsurance premiums, but added the legislation gives insurers and smalp businesses the opportunity to do “I’m not sure what [insurers] are going to he said. “They might not change rates, but they couled change co-pays or give coffee mugs.” Despite the economicd downturn, a recent survey by Hewitt Associates, a humann resources management firm basedin Lincolnshire, Ill., showesd that 33 percent of U.S. companiess planned to increase their wellness initiativesin 2009. And amid the growin g popularity ofwellness programs, there’s some evidences that providing incentives works.
Durinvg testimony for HB a representative for said that participation inthe company’a wellness program nearly doubled aftef the company offered a $10 reduction in employees’ biweeklyg contributions to their health insurancre premiums. Denver’s , which has enrolled more than 450,000 participantss in its FitLogix weight management and QuitLind smokingcessation programs, estimates it saved employersd more than $5.4 million (minusd the cost of the programs) in healtg care claims in the first 10 monthsd of its FitLogix program since it was launched in October 2007.