A handful of wellness programs have earned accreditation recently from one of the two national organizations that offer related assessment programs: the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and URAC. About 77 percent of large employers currently offer such programs, most with the hope that they’ll help control medical costs. While neither NCQA nor URAC purports to assess the return on investment of the wellness programs they review, both look at other important measures, like how effective the programs are at engaging employees, coaching employees on wellness and health issues, keeping data confidential, and conducting health appraisals. NCQA reports that 16 organizations have earned—or are in the pipeline to earn—its seal of approval; a dozen are engaged in the URAC process.
Related links:
NCQA's Wellness and Health Promotion Accreditation Program
http://www.ncqa.org/tabid/897/Default.aspx
URAC's Wellness Accreditation Program
http://www.urac.org/programs/prog_accred_CW_po.aspx?navid=accreditation&pagename=prog_accred_CW
An Essential Health Promotion Sourcebook for Employers Large and Small (Publication of the Partnership for Prevention)
http://www.prevent.org/images/stories/Files/publications/Healthy_Workforce_2010.pdf
