If Your Benes Can't Get Healthy, They'll Have To Pay

INDIANAPOLIS, IN (Managed Care Wire): Clarion Health, an Indianapolis-based health system, is taking a new approach to employee wellness; it's going to start charging its employees for their unhealthy habits.

Beginning in 2009, Clarion will start deducting money from your benes' paychecks for their unhealthy lifestyles. Employees with a Body Mass Index (BMI) higher than 30 will say goodbye to $10 each week from their paychecks, MSNBC reports. That's in addition to a $5 charge for high blood pressure, high cholesterol or high glucose level.

Smokers don't get off clean, either. Clarion will charge smoker employees $5 from each paycheck as well, reports MSNBC.

Clarion's plan comes as a result to frustrating and ever-growing healthcare costs. But the company's idea might not be the best approach to the problem, says Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health. Companies need to retain their best employees by keeping them happy, and charging employees for their less-than-perfect health will alienate them, Darling said in the MSNBC article.