Penske, Lithia to workers: Get a physical, save money

Penske Automotive Group Inc. knows the value of a healthy work force and how beneficial a yearly checkup can be.

So in 2017, it offered an incentive to its 16,000 U.S. employees: Get a physical and save $900 a year on health insurance premiums.

"We know that when you see a doctor, eye to eye every year, it has an impact," Bud Denker, executive vice president of human resources for Penske Automotive, told Automotive News.

The incentive worked. FromJune 1, 2017, to May 31, 2018, the Bloomfield Hills, Mich., company went from 25 percent of U.S. employees getting physicals to 84 percent, which Denker described as "amazing." This year, the nation's No. 2 auto retailer expanded the $75-a-month rebate program, rolling out the offer to employees' spouses or partners.

Penske isn't alone among the large public auto retailers working to help employees lead healthier lives — and financially rewarding them for their efforts.

AutoNation Inc., Asbury Automotive Group Inc. and CarMax confirmed they provide credits toward health insurance premiums for participating in biometric health screenings, which measure things such as blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels, and other programs. And Lithia Motors Inc. of Medford, Ore., for four years has offered employees and their spouses $200 cash bonuses for getting annual physicals.

"We've had people that have caught problems, early stages of cancer, issues of diabetes," Penske's Denker said. "We've found people who've caught those things early, and that's going to help them. But it's also going to help us in terms of keeping them healthy and keeping them productive, but also lowering our cost."

For more than a decade, AutoNation, the country's largest new-vehicle retailer, has encouraged free employee health screenings, initially using a bus that traveled from store to store with medical personnel to reach employees. Now employees can get their blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels checked at a lab.

The screenings have helped identify risks such as heart disease and diabetes, AutoNation spokeswoman Lisa Ryans said.

The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., retailer's program has evolved to giving employees financial incentives to lower insurance premiums if they participate in the screening and don't use tobacco. Dennis Berger, AutoNation's chief human resource officer, said in a statement that employees can save hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars a year. The savings vary by medical plan and whether an individual or family is covered, he said. The company has about 27,000 employees.

CarMax, of Richmond, Va., the nation's top used-vehicle retailer, has offered an in-dealership biometric screening program since 2012 to its nearly 25,000 employees and their partners. Those who complete a screening and health assessment can receive a $600 annual discount off premiums, Jeff Stutzman, assistant vice president ofcompensation and benefits at CarMax, said in a statement. The retailer also contributes to employees' health savings accounts, which can be tapped to reimburse out-of-pocket expenses.

And since 2014, Asbury has offered discounts on medical costs to employees and spouses who meet certain requirements. For 2019, the nation's No. 7 auto retailer is giving a $780 per-person credit for completing a biometric screening and a health questionnaire, and either participating in a quarterly walking challenge or finishing an online educational health training course. The Duluth, Ga., company has 8,100 employees.

Lithia also offers a nontobacco user credit to employees who qualify; they get $50 a month toward premiums, said Erik Lewis, Lithia's chief human resources officer.

"Some health insurance premium incentives we offer are immediate, financial in nature and targeted at individual employees/family," Lewis wrote in an email to Automotive News. "Other incentives are aimed at improving health, which reduces overall claims, which positively impacts the cost of our health care premiums."

The five retailers are among an increasing number of U.S. companies that offer financial incentives as part of well-being programs, according to the annual Health and Well-Being Survey by Fidelity Investments and the National Business Group on Health released this spring. Eighty-six percent of companies surveyed offered financial incentives, up from 74 percent in 2017. The average employee incentive this year reached $784, up from $742 a year ago and from $521 in 2013.

LuAnn Heinen, vice president of well-being and workforce strategy at the National Business Group on Health, said more companies in the past three years have rolled out a physical initiative as part of a well-being program, including at least one major auto company that it could not publicly identify. With a large male population in the auto industry, especially at dealerships, the program makes sense, she said, as many men fail to go to the doctor regularly.

Many companies provide other benefits as they try to create a culture of health in their organizations, Heinen said. But to motivate people, cash options seem to work best.

"The best rewards are the rewards that people feel," she said. "There's nothing like a few extra hundred dollars in your paycheck."

Penske for four years offered biometric screenings, with similar levels of participation to its physicals initiative. But Denker said many employees didn't act on screening results and failed to get a physical or follow up with a doctor.

"I have a phrase here: 'Hire to retire,' " Denker said. "We want our people coming aboard, we want them healthy and when they're not healthy, of course, we're missing out on their ability but also our ability to have great results."

It's too soon to see results of decreased costs to the company from the initiative, Denker said.

"We are going to see over time our health care costs decrease we feel because of people seeing things earlier, catching problems earlier, getting healthier," he said. "We may not see it this year or next year, but we'll see it over time for sure."