Healthcare providers face perennial challenges that put them in the middle between patients who need the best care possible and insurance programs, who ensure providers are getting compensated fairly for that care. Layered on top of those challenges are the realities that doctors and hospitals care practices are measured, in some part, by their ability to help patients stay healthy.
Improving patient care, means helping patients make better, long-term decisions about their health and habits.
The question becomes: how do you facilitate healthier habits?
79% of employers with over 500 employees and 30% with employees between 100-499 are self-insured. In order to engage their employees, encourage healthy outcomes, and save costs, many employers look to employee incentive programs to motivate healthy behavior changes.
Doctors and hospitals are adopting these incentive models however, the provider based programs face low patient participation and trouble measuring the success of these programs.
Here are the top two things you need to know to effectively incentivize patients not just to get healthy, but to maintain lifelong healthy habits.
1. Incentives Are Key
While 54% of small businesses offer some kind of wellness program, a common challenge of programs is maintaining participation. An effective way to increase participation and change behavior is using wellness incentives, such as gift cards. Non-cash incentives, in particular, are easy to customize for the recipient and the experience you want to instill.
For example, employees can qualify for a drawing if they complete the behavior you outline, such as
- A personal health assessment
- Biometric screening
- A behavior change campaign like a smoking cessation program
- A physical challenge (walk 50 miles in the month of December)
The drawing for a gift card incentive can support healthy behavior, like eating dinner at home. Providing incentives to a meal delivery service, helps curb the cost of a splurge meal for an employee, while also ensuring the splurge involves healthy meal options for the recipient, including food for diet-restrictions based on conditions like diabetes.
Wellness incentives don’t need to be participation trophies. Not every employee who participates needs to get an incentive for completing the target behavior, according to WellSteps. Having the chance to win is equally desirable and fun, like playing the lottery on a smaller scale, and sufficient to motivate most employees.
2. Deliver Incentives the Right Way
Healthcare providers know best that each patient has individual preferences and health goals. The same goes for wellness incentives and their delivery. Some patients will prefer to track their health goals and progress individually with their healthcare provider, while others will prefer to seek out groups for encouragement and motivation. Some patients desire social recognition for their achievements while others prefer individual recognition from only their provider. Understanding your patient’s individual preferences will help you determine the best way to select the right incentives and how to deliver them in the most effective way.
According to a study from the Incentive Research Foundation, factors leading to reward presentation can vary between generations, genders, occupations and other demographic factors. Ensuring you know how patients will want to interact with and participate in a wellness incentive program is key for success.
While wellness incentive programming from employers and providers can vary in size and scope, the core principles are consistent. Delivery and availability of incentives will have the greatest impact on program success and ultimately, patient health long term.
Did you know?
Did you know? With Engage2Reward™ Choice Card, your recipients can redeem online from over 250 different retailers for any eGift card of their choice. Make your Engage2Reward Choice Card even more personal by adding a message, animated greeting card, and photo specific to your recipient!
Get Started >>
Sources:
