Wellness Programs: do they work?

Wellness programs sometimes claim to save money by reducing health care spending, and the observational analysis usually supports this belief. This report tells us about a unique study published earlier this year looking into the effectiveness of the wellness program at the University of Illinois.
It evaluated the program (iThrive) implemented at a large employer with 12,000 staff in the US, using both an observational AND a randomized controlled study approach.
They took the 3,300 staff who accepted the wellness program, then analyzed them the way a typical observational trial would, comparing those who participated with those who didn�t. After one year there were no significant effects of the wellness program on the many outcomes examined, with two exceptions: employees are more likely to have received a health screening and to believe that the employer places a priority on worker health and safety.

Jones, D., Molitor, D., & Reif, J. (2018). What Do Workplace Wellness Programs Do? Evidence from the Illinois Workplace Wellness Study (No. w24229). National Bureau of Economic Research.