Employers Try to Keep Their Workers Healthy

Aetna is in the health insurance business, but as an employer, it's not immune to the rising costs of health care.

So the company uses wellness programs to encourage its workers to improve their health and health plans designed to make them more aware of the costs. Employees pay less for medications to treat chronic diseases than they would for other drugs. Nonsmokers get a discount on their health insurance premiums, and smokers who quit get the lower rate as soon as they do. In the cafeteria, the healthy foods are cheaper than the burgers and fries.

Aetna Chairman Ronald A. Williams

With health care costs increasing at an unsustainable rate, programs to keep workers healthy represent critical investments that require the commitment of top executives, Aetna Chairman Ronald A. Williams told business leaders in New Haven.

"Health and wellness have to become, ultimately, the business of the business itself," Williams said in a speech titled "The Business Imperative for Wellness."

READ MORE