Safeway's Bold Wellness Plan

Great post today in the World Health Care Blog about Safeway's aggressive corporate wellness plan.

Safeway's plan operates directly in the gray area between encouraging personal responsibility and enforcing it like a job condition. Two anecdotes from J McCabe Gorman's blog post:

• A staffer had a bowl of Hershey’s kisses sitting on a desk. The bowl was removed because it was “not consistent” with the [wellness plan's] goals (no word on whether the employee who brought the chocolate on board removed the bowl).
• In the Safeway cafeteria, an employee can order whatever food they want (”cheeseburger, onion rings”) but they’ll pay “full market price.” Healthier meal options are actually subsidized by Safeway.

CEO Steve Hurd yesterday announced a new initiative which, according to the blog post, "may be an American first - the creation of an employer funded, employer managed medical concierge coordination service created for cardiac disease and cancer – employees can call and they will be walked through the process of treatment at major treatment centers."

Safeway's is clearly a plan worth watching. Wonder if employees are making healthier choices in the cafeteria, or just paying the price to stay the course?