Health programs may use genetic testing
Companies looking to cut costs of care
Your employer may one day help determine if your genes are why your jeans have become too snug.
Big companies are considering blending genetic testing with coaching on nutrition and exercise to help workers lose weight and improve their health before serious conditions like diabetes or heart disease develop. It’s a step beyond the typical corporate wellness programs that many companies are using to make workers more aware of their risk factors and improve their health.
Genetic testing in corporate wellness programs also is relatively uncharted territory. Many employers and insurers cover these tests and counseling for medical reasons, like helping people determine if they are more prone to certain cancers. And earlier this year, President Obama asked Congress to approve spending on medical research into using a patient’s genes to tailor care.
Mixing generic testing into a wellness program may cre- ate a tool attractive to employers desperate to cut health care costs, one of the biggest expenses in a company’s budget. But employee benefits experts have doubts that such a novel approach will gain momentum. It first has to conquer steep challenges like employee worry about sharing such sensitive information and employer skepticism about its effectiveness.
“They are waiting for evidence that this genetic testing will change risks,” said Dr. Jeff Levin-Scherz, a senior consultant with the benefits consulting firm Towers Watson.
Sparking the push to add genetic testing into corporate wellness offerings is a new program from the health insurer Aetna and Newtopia, a small Canadian company that creates personalized health-improvement programs. Their offering uses data from initial wellness program steps like physicals or blood tests to figure out which employees are vulnerable to metabolic syndrome.
That’s a group of conditions like high blood sugar, poor cholesterol or a big waistline that, when they occur together, increase a patient’s risk for heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
Those people are invited to get testing that analyzes a narrow band of genes that can tell patients things like how their body processes carbohydrates or fats, or if they have a genetic marker tied to compulsive eating. Patients then work with a coach to combine that information with a plan to improve their health.
Aetna and Newtopia are selling their program to the insurer’s biggest employer customers, and they are seeking to sign up to six compa- nies this year. Spokeswoman Michelle Grant said the cost for companies will be on par with other disease prevention programs that attempt to improve a person’s health using live, individual coaching and apps. She did not provide specifics.
Aetna appears to have this niche to itself for now. None of the other major health insurers in the United States offer genetic testing as part of a wellness program.
The new program was tested on employees at Aetna and The Jackson Laboratory, a Bar Harbor, Maine, company. Scott Craig, a maintenance worker at the laboratory, decided to give the test a shot last year because his weight had soared to 335 pounds and his blood pressure and blood sugar levels were up.
The 53-year-old mailed a saliva sample in for analysis. The result? He has no genetic traits that help explain his weight gain.
“In other words, I got nothing to blame,” he said.
Craig connected with the program’s health coach, who helped him figure out how to squeeze in exercise three times a week and improve his diet. Newtopia also started sending personalized vitamin supplements and offering online contests that taught Craig how to track his daily activities and think of everything he did as a way to burn calories.
Craig was one of 130 laboratory employees invited to try the program. A total of 28 started. More than a year later, only 19 still participate. Most have lost 7 percent of their body weight or more, said Wayne Gregersen, who works in the company’s compensation and benefits department.