Companies investing more in wellness benefits to reduce medical costs for workers

The urgency of reducing employee benefit costs is growing among U.S. companies, focusing attention on improving health care benefits. According to the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), more businesses are moving toward wellness programs to keep their workers healthy and to reduce employee medical costs with more attention toward possibly preventing or managing controllable diseases such as diabetes, Employee Benefit News reported.

According to the 2014 SHRM report, prescription drug programs and dental health insurance plans are still the highest health care benefits with 95 percent of businesses offering them. However, other benefits such, as contraception and vision coverage, are down to 84 percent and 83 percent respectively.

The Affordable Care Act is another reason companies are looking to reduce employee benefit costs. According to The Associated Press, organizations are increasing wellness programs to lower medical bills for employees because a new 40 percent tax on expensive benefit plans will start in the new health care law in 2018. With the new tax impending, many organizations are looking to avoid facing it by investing more into worker wellness and health programs with their benefit plans.