UnitedHealthcare's employee wellness rewards program highlights the special role health plans can play in patient engagement, according to research published in Health Affairs.
UnitedHealth Group, the nation's largest insurer, offered its employees enrolled in a rewards program the chance to receive points that could qualify them for reduced insurance premiums of up to $1,200 per family per year. To do so, they had health screenings that could reveal conditions, such as cancer and diabetes, and met goals for lower body mass indexes.
In the first two years, 82 percent of employees earned points. Over three years, quality measures improved with large increases in wellness visits and office-based screenings, colorectal cancer screenings and retinal eye exams for individuals with diabetes.
And 7,200 employees at risk for diabetes had the chance to prevent the disease or better manage it. In addition, 44 percent of those who were overweight and used health coaching experienced an average 4.5 percent weight loss.
The rewards program, which has been in place since 2009, creates and delivers a reminder "healthenote" to the patient and physician for a screening for 20 conditions. The rewards program, which also uses smartphones to send reminders to patients, ended up saving $107 million in healthcare costs in the first three years.
Patient engagement is typically focused on physician interactions with their patients. But payers can close the loop on gaps in care with continuous data flow from claims, labs, pharmacies, health information exchanges and member health risk assessments, according to the article.
"They also have a relationship with patients regardless of where and when they receive care (and even when they don't)," wrote Lewis Sandy, United's EVP of clinical advancement, and co-authors.
Lewis also said that the payer's rewards program offers lessons for Medicare and Medicaid, which have in the past mostly relied on provider or supply-side changes, for demand-side or patient strategies.