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Do Wellness Programs Reduce Medical Costs?

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Do Wellness Programs Reduce Medical Costs?
INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care
Organization, Provision, and Financing http://inq.sagepub.com/ Do Workplace Wellness Programs Reduce Medical Costs? Evidence from a Fortune 500
Company
Hangsheng Liu, Soeren Mattke, Katherine M. Harris, Sarah Weinberger, Seth Serxner, John P.
Caloyeras and Ellen Exum
INQUIRY 2013 50: 150
DOI: 10.1177/0046958013513677
The online version of this article can be found at: http://inq.sagepub.com/content/50/2/150 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com Additional services and information for INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing can be found at:
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research-article2013

INQXXX10.1177/0046958013513677INQUIRYLiu et al.

Research Paper

Do Workplace Wellness
Programs Reduce Medical Costs?
Evidence from a Fortune 500
Company

INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care
Organization, Provision, and Financing
50(2) 150­–158
© The Author(s) 2013
Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0046958013513677 inq.sagepub.com Hangsheng Liu, PhD1, Soeren Mattke, MD, DSc1,
Katherine M. Harris, PhD2, Sarah Weinberger, MBA, MPH3,
Seth Serxner, PhD4, John P. Caloyeras, MPhil5, and Ellen Exum6

Abstract
The recent passage of the Affordable Care Act has heightened the importance of workplace wellness programs. This paper used administrative data from 2002 to 2007 for PepsiCo’s self-insured plan members to evaluate the effect of its wellness program on medical costs and utilization. We used propensity score matching to identify a comparison group who were eligible for the program but did not participate.

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