Selling Health Promotion to Corporate America: Uses and Abuses of the Economic Argument

Abstract

Economic considerations constitute a significant factor in businesses' interest in adopting health promotion (HP) programs and in the wellness community's attempts to sell such programming to business. Substantial elements of both the business and wellness communities believe that HP programs are financially profitable, in addition to, and as a result of, improving employees' health. Examination of the foundation of this belief, however, leads to the conclusion that underlying analyses have been technically flawed and have ignored important costs of HP programs. This article discusses the limitations of these analyses and outlines the framework of a model that could provide a sound assessment of the economics of workplace HP programs. In general, it is expected that resultant analyses would find less direct profit potential in workplace HP programs but would emphasize the cost-effectiveness of many such efforts. The latter would force recognition that health, and not profit, is the principal benefit of health promotion programming. The distinction between the cost-effectiveness and cost-saving potential of health promotion is one that all interested parties should master.