\n Employer-sponsored Wellness Accounts and Disease Management Program are\n offered as an incentive to promote employee health and activity-based\n programs. These accounts are unique to every employer.\n
\n\n Wellness programs can take many forms and may not even be called a\n “wellness program.” They may cover only employees and/or other family\n members. A comprehensive employer-sponsored wellness programs might\n offer a system of coordinated health-related communications,\n assessments, and incentives intended to raise health awareness and\n promote positive health behaviors.\n
\n\n\n Wellness programs might also use one, some, or all of the following\n tools to promote wellness and decrease health plan costs:\n
\n\n Some offer rewards to employees who participate or impose penalties on\n those who do not. Rewards for participation can take many forms:\n
\nPenalties of non-participation can take many forms:
\n\n An employer-sponsored disease-management program generally identifies\n employees and their family members who have, or who are at risk for\n developing, certain chronic medical conditions. A typical\n disease-management program will identify these individuals and “coach”\n them on how to manage their conditions.\n
\n\nDisease-management programs might provide:
\n\n Sometimes, these programs offer rewards (such as reductions or waivers\n of employee cost-sharing items, such as premiums, co-payments, or\n deductibles) for employees who participate.\n
\n\n In some ways, employer-sponsored wellness and disease-management\n programs may appear quite similar—both types of programs are intended to\n help participants lead healthier lives and lower or control health care\n costs. In fact, sometimes employers combine wellness and\n disease-management programs into a single program, or coordinate\n wellness and disease-management programs with each other or with the\n employer’s other health plans, such as a major medical plan, health FSA,\n HRA, or HSA.\n
\n\n But wellness and disease-management programs typically differ from one\n another. Wellness programs generally are designed to help all employees\n become and stay healthier, while disease-management programs are\n targeted toward helping only those employees who are at risk for\n developing, or who have already developed, chronic medical conditions.\n
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