Study: No quick savings from workplace wellness

WASHINGTON (AP) - Your boss wants you to eat your broccoli, hit the treadmill and pledge you'll never puff on a cigarette.

But a new study raises doubts that those workplace wellness programs companies are rushing to adopt actually do save money.

It's being called the most rigorous look yet inside the wellness trend.

Researchers tracked the program at BJC HealthCare, a major St. Louis hospital system, for two years.

Employee hospitalizations dropped dramatically, by 41 percent overall for six major conditions targeted by the hospital's wellness program. But increased outpatient costs erased those savings.

The study is in Monday's issue of the journal Health Affairs.