Health plans and employers looking to encourage healthier lifestyles are turning to social networking to get the point across. And a three-year-old wellness company is giving them the platform to drive results.
Shape Up The Nation numbers roughly 100 clients around the country, according to founder and chief clinical officer Rajiv Kumar, and is touting a new contract with Aetna as proof that the company’s ideas are catching on. Launched in 2006 as Shape Up Rhode Island, the company now offers a national platform upon which to develop wellness programs through peer motivation, support and accountability.
“Employers and health plans are desperate for something that is going to change the status quo,” said Kumar, a Brown University student. “There are really a lot of opportunities for employees to change their behavior, but the problem has always been low engagement. (Employers) can try financial incentives, but those are costly and they sot of signal to the employee that this is not going to be pleasant.”
“Social incentives can be powerful,” Kumar added. “What we’re doing is actually becoming an engagement weapon.”
Aetna announced its affiliation with Shape Up The Nation in January, agreeing to use the company’s platform to push Aetna Health Connections Get Active to its members. The fitness and nutrition program, modeled after Aetna’s employee-based Get Active Aetna program, urges members to schedule group exercise opportunities, participate in team-based challenges and use online tools to track fitness and nutrition goals or find others with similar interests.
“We all know the health benefits of losing weight, being more active, quitting smoking, eating a healthier diet and more, but many people don’t know where to begin and the thought of doing it alone is often daunting,” said Lonny Reisman, MD, Aetna’s chief medical officer. “Introducing a program to employees that includes a group dynamic has proven effective for motivating Aetna’s own employees to get healthy. In fact, many Aetna employees have shared amazing success stories about how the program helped them achieve and sustain healthy lifestyles. Now, Aetna is bringing this program to our customers so that other companies can enjoy the success that Aetna has had with its own employees.”
“It is such an important program. I’m a competitive person, so this makes exercise fun because you have teams and you are rooting each other on,” said Kip Hill, an Aetna employee in Arlington, Texas, who credits the program with helping him lose 120 pounds and quit smoking. “I love the program because it makes you think about how to fit exercise into your busy schedule and if you continue to do it all year long, you really see a difference.”
According to Kumar, 73 percent of the people who join a wellness-based social platform stay on that platform, a far higher percentage than wellness programs that use financial or other incentives. Through that promise of engagement, he said, Shape Up The Nation argues that its platform improves member health and morale and reduces avoidable healthcare costs.
“We’re in the process of changing a lot of minds and changing the way people think,” he said.