With healthcare being a hot topic among employers, discussions about how to lower healthcare costs are growing more open and more active. There are many ways healthcare costs can be reduced for a business, but one of the most compelling is a health incentive program. Health incentive programs work by paying employees for improving their health. The primary focus is usually on weight loss, as obesity is among the most common and most costly conditions that tends to affect individuals in the workforce.

The most immediate benefit is that it encourages employees to take better care of their health. Most people do want to take care of their health, but find it difficult to stay motivated. Incentive programs provide that motivation directly by putting forward a more immediate, more tangible reward. It’s hard to imagine the result of losing weight, but it’s easy to recognize the value of additional money in your account. Once an employee makes steps toward improving their own health and sees the difference it can make, they tend to improve their habits and take care of themselves even if the incentive program is discontinued.

These programs can also serve as a bonding tool. Employees will be sharing experiences and comparing notes about their progress with the incentive program. This allows them to bond over something within work that isn’t their job, which will lead to healthier socialization and cooperation.

By improving the health of employees, an incentive program can thus lower healthcare costs for everyone in the office. If your employees’ general health is improved, they won’t incur such high costs via insurance. This occurs through two vectors: first, better employee health means lower insurance coverage costs to begin with, as insurance is generally less expensive for individuals in better health. Second, it means they’ll be getting sick less often, thus incurring fewer medical costs overall. In addition, this can lower the cost of their prescription drug coverage, and the overall improvement of their health will lower absenteeism. Healthy employees tend to be more motivated employees, which makes the benefits even broader.

You can learn how to lower health care costs with IncentaHealth.com in greater depth on their website. Incentive programs are catching on in more large companies as their benefits become more clearly understood. With a proper incentive program in place you can make great strides to lower the cost of company healthcare and improve employee health.