Wellness centers are becoming profit centers for U.S. hospitals.

The centers, generally associated with corporate health insurance plans, had been adopted by a handful of hospitals that wanted to position themselves as on the cutting edge. But now, says Healthcare Finance magazine, wellness centers are catching on with hospitals for two financial reasons: return on investment, and reduced medical care costs for patients and staff.

The article, "Wellness centers, no long hospital gimmicks, become money-making population health engines," cites a recent study that estimates adding a wellness center to a hospital's operations nets an ROI of 6 percent to 10 percent. In  addition, the centers are designed to serve staff, patients and outside "customers," who pay to use the centers and, in theory, contribute to a hospital's efforts to demonstrate better health care results for the population it serves.