The Affordable Care Act (ACA) includes provisions to encourage appropriately designed, consumer-protective wellness programs in group health coverage.
Effective for plan years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2014, ACA essentially codifies the existing HIPAA nondiscrimination requirements for health-contingent wellness programs, while also increasing the maximum reward that can be offered under these programs.
Changes for health-contingent wellness programs include an increase in the permissible reward for meeting a healthrelated standard to 30 percent of the total cost of employee-only coverage (or 50 percent, if the program is designed to prevent or reduce tobacco use). Download the newsletter
