Few employers seem interested in taking advantage of thewellness incentives of the Patient Protection andAffordable Care Act.

That was one of the key findings of a study released Monday byVirgin HealthMiles and Workforce magazine. Nearly 10,000 employeesat 1,308 workplaces participated in the survey, titled “TheBusiness of Healthy Employees.” Eighty percent of the companiessurveyed offer health and wellness programs.

Only a quarter of the companies surveyed said they were planningto use wellness provisions of the PPACA to enhance employee healthbenefits programs — despite the fact that the law would allowemployers to substantially increase the percentage of benefitsrepresented by financial incentives.

This could be a major boat that employers are about to miss,because the study also indicated that such incentives matter toemployees. The study said:

“In 2014, the Affordable Care Act will provide additionalprovisions for health and wellness initiatives. Only 25.8% of theorganizations surveyed indicate having any plans to take advantageof the wellness provisions offered in the ACA. This is partiallydue to either a lack of understanding of the benefits offered(15.9%) or lack of desire to take advantage (19.3%).

“There are a number of reasons why companies should look attaking advantage of the ACA provisions. Starting in 2014, employerscan raise the total amount of financial incentives offered from 20%to 30% of the organization's health care plan costs. The ceilinggoes to 50% for smoking cessation programs. This allowsorganizations to raise the financial incentives offered toemployees who participate in the program, and can lead to increasedsavings while gaining the positive return on investment.”

Companies that take advantage of the law's provisions are likelyto have happier and more engaged workers, said Chris Boyce, CEO,Virgin HealthMiles. “The opportunity to increase your wellnessincentives enables you to further customize your corporate wellnessinitiative and make sure you're offering a comprehensive anddiversified set of programs that best meet the needs of yourworkforce.”

Other key conclusions from the study included:

Employees value health and wellness programs.In all, 87.2% of employees surveyed said they consider health andwellness packages when choosing an employer.

Health and wellness programs positively influence anorganization's culture of wellness. Seventy percent ofworkers reported that wellness programs “positively influence theculture at work,” and 57.5% say wellness program involvement “hashad a positive influence on their colleagues, friends andfamily.”

Incentives matter. Though the dominant motivefor employee participation in health and wellness programs is toimprove their health (78.2%), incentives are important — 61.4% ofemployees say the incentives they earn through participating inwellness programs are a key reason they participate.

Communication of benefits package information lacksclarity. Half of employees said “they are not aware of, orneed to know more about, health and wellness programs offered byemployers.

Metrics are a challenge. In contrast to lastyear's results, measurement was a much larger issue among employersthis year. Only 31% of organizations reported that they were“satisfied with their health and wellness metrics.” (Does anyonesee a business opportunity here?)

Also of interest to benefits managers were the findings thatcompared benefits of interest to employees to the benefits offeredby employers. For instance, only 12.7% of employees said they caredabout smoking-cessation incentive programs, yet 50.3% of employerssaid they offered them. Nearly 80% of employees said they wantedhealthy on-site food choices, but only a third of employers saidthey offered such choices.

Better matches were found in weight-management incentiveprograms: 56% of workers wanted them, and 49% of companies hadthem. Similarly, 36% of employees said they were interested inmental health management programs, and 38% of companies offerthem.

The study was commissioned as part of National Employee WellnessMonth.

This article was originally posted at BenefitsPro.com, a sister siteof Credit Union Times.