Most U.S. Companies To 'Impose Consequences' On Employees Who Don't Try To Improve Health: Survey

Most companies plan to create policies in line with an Obamacare provision that will let companies charge employees more in penalties if they don't participate in company wellness programs, a new study has found.

Altogether, 58 percent of companies "plan to impose consequences" on employees "who do not take appropriate actions for improving their health," according to the survey by Aon Hewitt, a human resources consulting firm. Aon Hewitt surveyed nearly 800 big and mid-sized U.S. companies with more than 7 million employees in total.

Some companies have already taken action. Employees at CVS Caremark, one of the nation's largest pharmacy chains, will have to pay an extra $600 for company health insurance every year they don't participate in company-paid health screenings.

Those screenings will measure employees' body mass index (BMI), blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure, but CVS itself will not see the data, a CVS spokesman told The Huffington Post via email.

"We want to help our employees to be as healthy as they can be, which is why we decided to implement this plan," a CVS spokesman wrote in a statement to HuffPost. "Many companies around the country already have plans similar to the one we are implementing."

(Hat tip: Forbes)