Benefit-Based Incentives Best for Health Behavior Change, Finds New Market Research

News Release

Contact Information:
Melanie Matthews
Voice: (732) 449-4468
Fax: (732) 449-4463
E-mail: mmatthews@hin.com
Web site: www.hin.com

New Market Research on Health and Wellness Incentives: Benefit-Based Incentives Best

Incentives Benefit-based incentives are best at boosting health behavior change, according to the third annual Health and Wellness Incentives survey conducted by the Healthcare Intelligence Network.


Sea Girt, NJ, USA — June 16, 2011: A gift card to Starbucks just might encourage employees to spend more time on the treadmill, but reducing their health premiums is a better long-term strategy.

At least, that’s what the results of the New Jersey-based Healthcare Intelligence Network’s (HIN) third annual Health and Wellness Incentives Use e-survey showed. According to the survey completed by 156 healthcare organizations, more and more healthcare organizations are offering health and wellness incentives to their employees, in an attempt to get them to adopt healthier behaviors that will ultimately decrease escalating healthcare costs and shift more health ownership to the consumer.

"Our third annual Health and Wellness Incentives survey has shown once again that it is the incentives that put healthcare dollars back in the consumers' pocket that are the most effective. The survey also yielded some interesting new trends in the use of incentives for end-of-life activities," said Melanie Matthews, executive vice president, the Healthcare Intelligence Network.

You can download an executive summary of the 2011 Health and Wellness survey results. The complete report is available for purchase for $117 for a PDF version, $127 for the book and $193.05 for both versions. Both versions will be available for shipping on 6/20.

Healthcare companies are growing increasingly more creative in their use of economic and benefits-based incentives. Survey results showed that gift cards to anywhere from coffee chains to music download companies generated the second highest engagement and participation levels among their employees, with cash payments generating the highest participation. Last on the list? Memberships to gym facilities.

Benefits-based incentives proved to be even more effective at generating engagement and participation, with health premium reductions and Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRA) completion topping the list. Similarly to last year, 70 percent of respondents said that the top benefits-based incentive generating the highest participation rate was health premium reduction. And like last year, HRA completion was the main health improvement program for which incentives were offered, and the program that showed the most positive response from incentives. For more information on how healthcare companies use HRAs, watch this Healthcare Intelligence Network video.

But there were challenges to offering incentives as well. According to one respondent, some of the biggest obstacles faced in program development were financial. “We will have to be creative in our recognition and reward methods.”

Over 80 percent of respondents queried said that they did not penalize individuals for health risk factors or non-compliance, but the majority of program participants opted in voluntarily, and while most of them were employees, nearly 40 percent of them were employee members’ spouses.

To learn more about the Benchmarks in Health & Wellness Incentives, 2011 Edition: Data to Drive Health Promotion, Compliance and ROI or to order your copy today, contact HIN at 888-446-3530 or visit online at:
http://store.hin.com/product.asp?itemid=4181

Available in Single or Multi-User Licenses

A multi-user license will provide you with the right to install and use this information on your company's computer network for an unlimited number of additional workstations within your organization for a one-time fee. To have this valuable resource on your network, or to inquire about ordering bulk copies in print or Adobe PDF, please e-mail sales@hin.com or call 888-446-3530.


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