It's a typical day at the office. You skip the elevator and head for the stairs. Lunch is a whole wheat, turkey and veggie pita ‑- hold the mayo. After work, you'll dash to yoga class. Beside you, an overweight coworker gulps down a late breakfast of coffee and donuts. By the end of the day, she'll have puffed her sixth cigarette.

You and your sedentary, smoking colleague observe very different regimens, yet each of you contributes the same amount toward the company health insurance plan. Shouldn't you get some discount or reward for doing the right things?

Yes, say a growing number of insurers and employers who've begun to offer financial incentives and other perks to get workers eating right, moving, staying fit and leading healthier lifestyles.

Chicago Consulting Actuaries (CCA), a firm that helps insurance companies set premium costs, hosted a Colorado health retreat for its own employees and their families last August that jump-started healthier habits. Soda consumption dropped 40 percent and wait times for elevators shrank as more workers began hoofing it up the stairs. CCA also began offering health risk assessments. Employees who attain certain thresholds or show improvements in their health scores can get a 53 percent discount on their premium contribution.

By changing the incentives, the firm's number crunchers figured, "We could change the upward trend in the premium cost," explained Lisa Pingel, CCA's human resources manager.