American Medical News
Oct. 20, 2003
Plans offer prizes to push patients to healthy living
By Robert Kazel
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 acessation or weight-loss programs. The rewards program is free and open to all HMO, PPO and POS members.
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.
“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.
John La Puma, MD, an internist and weight loss specialist in Santa Barbara,
Calif., said tapping patients’ desires to get merchandise and participate in
contests as a way to make wellness programs attractive makes sense.
“It may seem too much like Publishers Clearing House, but those people do
have a terrific track record of attracting participants,” he said. “I think
it’s a strategy whose time has come and will produce benefits for both [the
plan and members]. Americans love games, they love the idea of winning
prizes and they love competing. Thinking outside the box, even if it reminds
one of a game show, is necessary because traditional thinking has failed for
so long.”
http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/amnews/pick_03/bisc1020.htm
Comment: Does anyone really believe that prizes are adequate motivation
to change fundamental lifestyles?
More importantly, does anyone want their health premium dollar to be paying
for gifts of exercise equipment and mountain bikes? PacifiCare is a provider
of federally funded plans such as Secure Horizons, a Medicare + Choice
option, and options under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plans. That
means that tax funds will be used to help pay for these prizes.
We would never accept this nonsense in a publicly-administered program of
social insurance such as our traditional Medicare program. So why do we turn
our health care dollars over to the private sector and allow them to make
these ridiculous decisions?
Let’s dump the “game shows” and the other wasteful practices of the
private health plans. We’ll receive far better health care value with our own
publicly-funded and publicly-administered program of social insurance.