The Federal Times reports that government payroll offices have notified federal employees that generally they can expect to receipt their retroactive 2019 pay raise in their next paycheck for the period covering April 1 through April 14.

The FEHBlog learned from Fortune Brainstorm Health (a useful daily email) that the Journal of the American Medical Association published a clinical study on the efficacy of employer wellness programs.

Question  What is the effect of a multicomponent workplace wellness program on health and economic outcomes?

Findings  In this cluster randomized trial involving 32 974 employees at a large US warehouse retail company, worksites with the wellness program had an 8.3-percentage point higher rate of employees who reported engaging in regular exercise and a 13.6-percentage point higher rate of employees who reported actively managing their weight, but there were no significant differences in other self-reported health and behaviors; clinical markers of health; health care spending or utilization; or absenteeism, tenure, or job performance after 18 months.

Meaning  Employees exposed to a workplace wellness program reported significantly greater rates of some positive health behaviors compared with those who were not exposed, but there were no significant effects on clinical measures of health, health care spending and utilization, or employment outcomes after 18 months.

Healthcare Dives riffs on a RAND study finding low primary care utilization in Medicare.

A dearth of primary care physicians (PCPs) starts a chain reaction leading to lessened care access, more emergency department visits and more spend for payers and providers overall. A recent Premier analysis found that primary care has a bottom line impact for hospitals. More PCPs could help patients better control chronic conditions, resulting in fewer ED visits (and billions in savings for cash-strapped hospitals).

The problem stems at least partially from the fact that health plans, particularly Medicare, underpay primary care providers compared to specialists. It would be interesting to learn whether patients who pay extra for primary care providers who don’t participate in Medicare have better health outcomes.