Thanks Ellen for sneding this very interesting link:
http://www.sphere.com/nation/article/whole-foods-staffers-to-pay-less-if-they-weigh-less/19331110?sms_ss=email
Basically, Whole Foods is putting an incentive policy into place that rewards their employess with a "healthier" status to get a higher discount on foods they buy at Whole Foods. There are several parameters that will be looked at including cigarette smoking, BMI, cholesterol levels. People will be divided into 4 groups based on their cumulative health score on these issues and then their discount will range from 30% in the "healthiest" category to 22% in the least healthy group.
The weird thing about this is that the supposedly least healthy group will be less encouraged to buy the foods that Whole Foods is known for...fresh vegetables, organnic foods etc..the foods rthat may lower the BMI.
Reason for this? Whole Foods spent over 150 million dollars last year on healthcare costs for their workers and the CEO says this will only continue to rise if people do not become healthier..
Your thoughts on this? Mine: We, as human beings, are driven often by incentive systems. Least you doubt that, just see what happened with the Cash for Clunkers program, the lines on Friday at 5AM after Thanksgiving, etc...we LOVE incentives and are motivated by them.
I believe that if outside incentives were put into place for us to become healthier, we would. But how far can this go? Tax incentives if you have a normal BMI? Bonuses at work based on BMI? A very controversial topic and I am very interested in your thoughts.
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I doubt it will have long term effects on worker's health. There will definitely boost in the beginning when everyone feels motivated. But as time goes on and people become more and more frustrated with their lack of success, they will fall back into their old bad habits. Their is little support to reinforce the good behavior after in the initial boost. Besides, what Whole Foods pays for health insurance for their employees is unlikely to change or decrease no matter the health of the workers. One a side note, I doubt that Whole Foods pays their hourly workers enough to shop there, even with the discount. Especially if they are supporting anything more than themselves.
Overall, incentives only work when their is instant gratification involved. With weight loss, there is little instant gratification. Ever.
Incentive programs designed to change an individual’s behavior over a long period of time are tricky. It’s much easier to design an incentive program to get someone to make a one-time purchase, like the Cash for Clunkers Program, because the reward is immediate and does not require a long time commitment to change. I believe a better solution to the obesity problem is to provide more free or tax-deductible resources, e.g., nutritional guidance, memberships to gyms, health screening, etc.
That being said, here are a few thoughts related to the Whole Foods program --
1. Whole Food employees already get a 20% discount, so what the incentive program provides is an additional incentive of 2% to 10% on top of this discount. That would equate to a $1 to $5 additional savings on $50. That’s not much of an incentive, especially considering the cost of whole foods versus processed foods.
2. One of the biometric criteria of the Whole Foods incentive program is BMI. Based on the InBody 230 printout I received from your office, it would seem that Percentage of Body Fat would be a better criteria since “individuals with large amounts of muscle mass for their height may also have a BMI over the normal range; this is not indicative of obesity or a health risk.” However, I like the fact that the Whole Foods incentive program considers BMI versus body weight. Just yesterday, Good Morning America had a segment on people who are within normal weight limits, but have a BMI that is above the recommended limit – they labeled the condition Normal Weight Obesity. A related article is at http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/HealthyLiving/people-considered-average-weight-normal-weight-obese/story?id=9671590.
3. I like the fact that the incentive program takes an integrated look at health risks by considering multiple biometric criteria. Specifically, the Whole Foods flyer states that achieving the various incentive discounts is based on the lowest of biometric level achieved. However, that means that to get the additional 10% discount you would need to meet all the criteria of the Platinum level – BP 110/70 or less, total cholesterol <150 or LDL <80, and BMI <24. Without medications, some people (especially older individuals) may not be able to achieve those levels no matter what they do.
4. I believe the best part of the program are the free periodic screenings.
Speaking of incentives, I remember seeing a post from you a while back regarding incentives for referrals to the Serotonin Plus Program (separate from the house party program). However, I believe that was a limited time program. Do you have an on-going referral program?
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