GiftCard Partners Blog

The American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA) has designated the week of March 11-17th, 2012 as THE week to recognize HR professionals in hospitals and non-hospital organizations across the US. These professionals deal with difficult issues day in and day out, and they are the backbone of the healthcare workforce. If you are an HR professional in the healthcare industry, lead the way and reward your colleagues with the gift they can use, like
CVS and CVS Select^TM gift cards. It’s the employee gift that goes a long way to help with everyday family healthcare costs.
Learn more about Healthcare HR Week!

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, many are gearing up to figure out just the right gift for their significant other. Why not take the worry and stress out of finding that “perfect” gift that usually comes with a gift receipt and another trip to the store. Calling all employers! Valentine's day is a great time to exercise that wonderful incentive or loyalty program you’ve just put in place. Show you care by rewarding your employees with gift cards to 
CVS/pharmacy so they can reward the ones they love. While the gentlemen are scratching their heads on whether to grab the Small shirt, so not to offend their wife, or trying to decide if her favorite color is purple even though she’s been wearing a lot of black lately, there is an easy solution. A gift card to Catherines or Lane Bryant
 will ensure she gets exactly what she wants and leave him out of the dog house this February 14th. The women in the office may be having some trouble of their own. They can get their guy the gift that keeps on giving with an
AutoZone Gift Card…for the other love of his life. Or give him the chance to revamp his wardrobe with a gift card to
Burlington Coat Factory. Use this Valentine's Day as an opportunity to reward your employees hard work and let them reward their loved ones.    

U.S. workers are spending $5,620 a year on WHAT?

The answer might surprise some, but for many, it’s not a shock—coffee and lunch. According to one estimate, the average U.S. worker spends around $5,620 to $7,700 annually on these everyday expenses. If you’re thinking this seems high, consider the costs of your daily coffee run and lunch break. They add up fast.

Most people in corporate America understand the benefits of health and wellness programs…from the potential insurance premium savings and government incentives to companies, to individual employee productivity increases, and long term behavior changes; health and wellness programs seem to be a win-win when you incent and motivate people to get involved. But, it’s not just the corporate side of America looking closely at health and wellness incentives. U.S. Medicaid and Medicare programs, States and insurance companies are also looking at incentives such as the
CVS Select gift cards. Such gift cards work as incentives in prevention programs that demonstrate changes in health risk and outcomes, such as tobacco cessation, controlling or reducing weight, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, and avoiding the onset of diabetes or improving the management of their diabetes condition.1 CVS Select gift cards is an example of a healthy gift card incentive that filters out unhealthy products, such as tobacco and alcohol, and supports positive purchases such as medication co-pays, over the counter medicines and other healthcare products. In many ways, the users of Medicaid and Medicare programs are some of the most vulnerable of our population, as they need prompting to get healthy and remain healthy, yet they often have fewer resources to do so.
Read more from CMS.gov to learn how incentives can benefit Medicare & Medicaid Services. Source: 1.
Overview of Medicaid Incentives for Prevention of Chronic Diseases Program

We read a lot about gift card “breakage”. That pre-paid industry term that translates to “gift cards that have been sold but never redeemed”. Breakage is a negative term for gift card holders and it’s really not such a positive one for retailers (surprisingly). Although breakage leads to higher profit margins; retailers and merchants are NOT gaining customers or building loyalty if those gift card holders never visit the store to become a real customer. Let’s turn this principle into an opportunity for employers, loyalty programs, and Scrip gift card programs, to communicate to their participants and engage them with your program. You know who you have given gift cards to. So, communicate with those program participants, and use that information to engage them in your program. Although many will have redeemed their gift cards, show you care and send them a reminder to use their cards…that employee, loyalty points redeemer, or the Scrip gift card buyer will thank you for the reminder.