WASHINGTON, D.C.--As companies aim to keep employees healthy and cut healthcare costs, wellness programs are becoming more popular. Participants are eligible to receive money for participating in the programs or for reaching certain benchmarks.

At the World Health Care Congress, executives at Disney Worldwide Services and Union Pacific Railroad discussed how they instituted wellness programs and how they fit with their company goals.

James Winkler, senior vice president and chief innovation officer at Aon Health, said the next three to five years will be important in transforming the healthcare industry. He said this is a “pivotal moment” in which keeping employees healthy will be linked to better business results.

“We are rapidly evolving to what we call the 'era of the person,'” Winkler said.

Winkler defined this era as a shift toward people having more control and personal accountability for their care and alternatives to traditional care such as telehealth. The change is coinciding with a few trends, according to Winkler.

First, employers will be assessed a 40 percent tax starting in 2018 if their health plans have premiums that exceed annual limits of $10,200 for individual coverage and $27,500 for family coverage. There has also been a significant increase in venture capital investments in healthcare technology. In addition, the introduction of public and private health insurance exchanges means more people will purchase coverage through those exchanges.

Jeffrey Shapiro, vice president of enterprise benefits at Disney Worldwide Services, said the company has an outcomes-based wellness program that has evolved through the years. Of Disney’s 140,000 employees in the U.S., 90,000 are enrolled in the company’s health plan.

When Disney introduced its wellness program in 2010, employees received $100 for undergoing a personal health assessment and $100 for validated biometrics. They also received $100 if they had a body mass index between 18.5 and 24.9.

Now, employees do not receive any money for participating in the program. However, they can earn $150 if their BMI is less than 27 or if they undergo weight counseling. They can earn an additional $150 if their blood pressure is 140/90 mm Hg or if they undergo counseling.

Jack Sullivan, Union Pacific’s director of healthcare, said his company began its wellness program in 2005 and gave people money if they underwent a wellness assessment or if they did not smoke. 

This year, Union Pacific changed its program, doubling the incentive for taking a wellness assessment to $200 per employee and dropped the incentive for not smoking. Sullivan said Union Pacific does not hire people who smoke in states where it’s legal to do so.

Union Pacific offers very high deductible plans with very low premiums and very high company health savings account funding, according to Sullivan. He said the company’s health plan design has helped Union Pacific have lower than average healthcare costs and provided employees with prescription drug costs that are 20 percent to 30 percent below the national average.