Carrot and Stick
SOME EMPLOYERS HAVE ADOPTED A CARROT-AND-STICK APPROACH in promoting wellness programs. In 2009,
Florida’s Broward County implemented a penalty aimed at increasing the participation of government employees in
its wellness program. The county imposed a $20 biweekly charge on employees enrolled in the group health plan who
had not completed a confidential health risk assessment and biometric screening.
Although controversial, the fine was upheld in August 2012, when the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sustained
a lower court decision that ruled the charge did not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, falling instead within
the act’s insurance safe harbor exception.
TODD WHITTHORNE is president and Ceo of Cooper Concepts
Inc., a Cooper aerobics company based in Dallas, and a member
of the american College of sports Medicine, the International
association for worksite Health Promotion, and the Dallas
Chamber of Commerce Healthcare taskforce.
KEVIN BINGHAM, an associate of the Casualty actuarial
society and a member of the academy, is a principal at
Deloitte Consulting llP in Hartford, Conn., leader of Deloitte’s
Claim Predictive Modeling and Medical Professional liability
practices, immediate past chairperson of the academy’s Medical
Professional liability Committee, and an official academy
spokesperson.
JAMES GUSZCZA, a fellow of the Casualty actuarial society
and a member of the academy, is the national predictive
analytics lead in Deloitte Consulting’s actuarial, risk & advanced
analytics practice and past assistant professor of actuarial
science, risk management, and insurance at the university of
wisconsin-Madison school of business.
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