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USA Today reports on the outstanding outcomes of the Kings County, Washington wellness plan, which has seen great results “in employee participation, health improvement and health care savings.”

The program was launched as an effort to bring down “runaway medical costs,” according to the county's top executive Dow Constantine.

The story states: “By all accounts, the previous administration was desperate to bring down double-digit health care cost growth that threatened to destroy the entire budget.” One key has been financial incentives “King County offers its employees for participating.”

The Kings Country program has even won an innovation award from Harvard University.

As for wellness plans more generally, the story reports that “evidence shows that workplace health programs have the potential to promote habit-forming healthy behavior, improve employees' health knowledge and help workers get necessary screenings, immunizations and follow-up care. The Affordable Care Act encourages employers to expand wellness programs by loosening federal regulations that limit the financial rewards employers can offer workers for reaching certain health goals such as quitting tobacco use.”