Law Firm Predicts Workplace Wellness Programs Will Become Mandatory

Will the day come when you either join your company's workplace wellness program or be disciplined or terminated? A new report says yes.

Make a list of your company's assets. It will certainly include your facilities and equipment, your in-house talent and proprietary knowledge, and your goodwill.

And these days, there is likely to be one more item: the wellness of your workforce.

That's the opinion of the national law firm, Littler Mendelson, P.C., in a fascinating new report that recently crossed our desk. Titled Employer Mandated Wellness Initiatives: Respecting Workplace Rights While Controlling Healthcare Costs, the 36-page document detailed what it termed a coming "perfect storm" in the employer-paid healthcare plan arena.

"Three forces are combining," declared the report's authors, "threatening balance sheets and in many cases, raising the question of business survival." The forces: accelerating medical costs, rising healthcare needs based on America's sedentary lifestyle, and the coming "talent war" that will make it difficult to reduce healthcare benefits.

Littler Mendelson's solution to controlling what it termed "the healthcare monster"? Wellness programs. The report went on to make the point that, while generally voluntary today, such programs will become mandatory in the future. "Employers will have no choice but to move closer to making workplace wellness a requirement," the authors concluded. From the BLR Daily Advisor