The Cleveland Clinic, in Ohio, is going to charge workers who are considered to be unhealthy a 21% higher health insurance premium than it will charge to employees who are healthy. There is a lot of debate over whether this type of plan achieves the goal of making workers become healthier. Charging some workers more for insurance, based upon that person’s health, is part of a growing trend.
The Cleveland Clinic is about to do something that many other employers have done. They want their workers to become healthier. More and more employers have become very interested in how healthy, or unhealthy, their employees happen to be.
One way to encourage reluctant workers to improve their health is to provide them with a reward. This is a form of positive reinforcement. Some corporations will reduce the premium rate for workers who meet certain health goals. Others will give out prizes, (like tickets to a local event), to employees who lose weight, quit smoking, or eat healthier.
The other way to encourage workers to change their habits, and improve their health, is to provide the workers with negative reinforcement. Create a situation that is unpleasant to experience, which can be avoided if the worker behaves in certain ways.
One good example of negative reinforcement is that annoying sound we hear when we get into our cars. The buzzing, dinging, or other type of noise is bothersome, and the only way to stop it is to put on your seatbelt. You rush to put your seatbelt on in order to shut off that infernal noise. You do not have to be aware of the fact that seat belts save lives, or that it may be a law in your state to use a seat belt. It doesn’t matter. You still ended up clicking your seat belt before you started driving.
The Cleveland Clinic has decided to use a form of negative reinforcement on their workers. Employees who do not meet certain definitions of “healthy” will see their health insurance premiums increase by 21%. No one enjoys suddenly having to pay a whole lot more money for health insurance. To avoid this negative situation, the workers are going to have to meet the Clinic’s definition of “healthy”.
The Clinic has a program called “Healthy Choice”. 16,000 of their workers have enrolled in it. The Clinic wants to see the other 13,000 join it, too. Employees enrolled in “Healthy Choice” agree to see a doctor. That doctor will determine if they are at a healthy weight. This is usually determined by a BMI chart, but, the doctors can override that definition if they feel the patient’s muscularity makes the chart an inaccurate form of measurement.
The doctors will find out if the worker has a chronic health condition, like asthma, diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or if they are a smoker. Employees who are deemed to be unhealthy will have to meet individualized health goals, in order to avoid the 21% increase.
Workers who are healthy, but who haven’t joined “Healthy Choice” can avoid the 21% increase by joining the program. They also have to join a Clinic fitness center, or Curves, or the Clinic’s “Shape Up and Go” program, in order to avoid the increase in premium rate.
Image by SFO CP on Flickr