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.

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Dan Cook

Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.