The Future of Getting Paid to Be Healthy

Published in The Atlantic on June 3, 2013

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/06/the-future-of-getting-paid-to-be-healthy/276461/

Paying people to be healthier sounds simple, but behavior change is anything but. Financial incentives can work when they’re immediate, well-designed, and paired with real support—yet poorly framed rewards and penalties risk breeding resentment and mistrust. The future of wellness hinges not on punishment, but on aligning incentives, workplace culture, and human behavior to make healthy choices easier to sustain.