Plans offer prizes to push patients to healthy living

Gifts provide incentives to participate in wellness programs.

By Robert Kazel, AMNews staff. Oct. 20, 2003.

Some health plans are offering rewards ranging from CD-ROMs and exercise equipment to movie tickets and hotel discounts in exchange for their members' willingness to shape up, slim down or engage in other health-conscious activities.

PacifiCare Health Systems, the Cypress, Calif.-based managed care plan with more than 3 million members, this month is rolling out a points-based rewards program intended to boost enrollment in such activities as smoking cessation or weight-loss programs. The rewards program is free and open to all HMO, PPO and POS members. Physicians are not asked to put their patients in programs, nor do they get paid if their patients join up.

"For so long we've been successful at developing educational programs and incentives for physicians to practice evidence-based medicine, and now we have what I like to call a reciprocal program for consumers," said Sam Ho, MD, PacifiCare's chief medical officer.

Members who participate in the program, called HealthCredits, can choose among 16 programs to earn varying degrees of points that can be redeemed for prizes or discounts on wellness-related merchandise or services. Additionally, random drawings award other prizes such as treadmills and mountain bikes.

PacifiCare members can earn credits by going on the Internet and completing an on-line health risk assessment; using another Internet site called a "virtual health club" to monitor meals, weight, and exercise; attending a Weight Watchers meeting at least three times a month; or joining a smoking cessation program.