Whole Foods Market announced Tuesday a program called The Team Member Healthy Discount Incentive, which offers increased discounts for full- and part-time employees who do not use nicotine products and satisfy certain healthy biometric criteria for blood pressure, total cholesterol (or LDL) levels and Body Mass Index (BMI).
Employees already receive a 20 percent discount on purchases at Whole Foods Market stores as an employment benefit, but now, those who voluntarily opt to participate in the incentive plan could receive up to an additional 10 percent off.
Those who want to receive the steepest discount, or the "Platinum" level, must have a BMI of 23.99 or less, blood pressure of 110/70 and less than 150 Total Cholesterol (or less than 80 LDL). A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered normal and anything above 30 is considered obese. BMI is a measure of a person's height and weight.
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey says the program is designed to reduce health care costs to the company.
