But the program’s biggest critics say the programs are yet another way to push more costs onto employees, and even worse, potentially a backdoor way to discriminate against less healthy workers by making them pay more if, for instance, they fail to meet a goal of lower cholesterol. For lower-income employees, who may feel more pressure to participate, there is the potential for another type of discrimination.

“Even if the program fails to improve employee health or lower costs over all, they can come out ahead by shifting more of the responsibility to employees in the form of larger contributions,” said Matt Lamkin, a professor at the University of Tulsa College of Law who specializes in bioethics and medical consumerism.

Privacy is another concern. Many workers may fear that their sensitive medical information — like their blood pressure or data collected by a wearable device — could end up in the wrong hands or become exposed in a data breach. Consider the questions in a typical health assessment: Do you feel so stressed that nothing can cheer you up? Have people annoyed you by criticizing your drinking? And don’t forget to include your waist circumference.

While most large employers — with 500 workers or more — ask employees to complete some sort of health assessment to identify potential risk factors, nearly 60 percent also ask them to prick their fingers for biometric screening, according to a 2015 report by Mercer, a consulting firm. And the number of employers offering financial incentives to complete any of these wellness-related tasks has inched higher: About 56 percent of large employers dangled an incentive in front of their workers last year, the most common being a premium reduction.

The programs may have become more prevalent, at least in part, because of the Affordable Care Act. That law expanded existing rules for a certain type of wellness program where incentives are contingent on a specific health outcome (like reducing blood pressure) or an activity (like walking).