SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- A little extra cash and better health to boot -- that’s what Blue Shield of California members who participated in the Healthy Lifestyle Rewards program are getting this holiday season. The not-for-profit health plan is mailing checks totaling almost $200,000 to more than 1100 of its members as a reward for going online to learn tips about quitting smoking, losing weight, reducing stress and eating better. Blue Shield is the first health plan in history to pay its members to adopt healthy behaviors.
The pilot program, Healthy Lifestyle Rewards, is completing its first year and will award money to every program participant who logged on to the program site consistently during the past ten months. The checks, most of them for $200, should arrive before Christmas.
Blue Shield invited 25,000 members to take part in Healthy Lifestyle Rewards. From the 3800 members who took up the offer, 30 percent earned a monetary award. The most popular offering was “Weight Loss, which was chosen by 18 percent of participants who lost a combined total of 5,000 pounds.”
“I truly believe that your program gave me the jump start I needed to get healthy,” said Jay Haghparast of the California Department of Transportation. “I am getting a team together to climb Half Dome in Yosemite [National Park] soon.”
Participants registered for the program through the Blue Shield of California website (http://www.mylifepath.com/), where they filled out a health assessment. The resulting individual profile showed both where the person was doing well and where lifestyle changes could help. The program’s modules offer walking trackers, meal planners, stress-management and tobacco-abstinence tools.
To earn money -- from $75 to $200, depending on duration of participation -- an enrollee needed to record, on the honor system, their healthy activity on a weekly basis. While the goal of Healthy Lifestyle Rewards is to improve participant health outcomes, the rewards were based solely on participation rather than individual results. The program also includes a second, “follow up” health assessment.
“We are pleased that 92 percent [of the participants] said they were successful in reaching their goals,” said Deborah Schwab, RN, MS, Blue Shield director of new product development. In an additional effectiveness measure, Stanford University researchers are designing a study of participants’ future medical claims.
In 2005, Blue Shield will continue the pilot program with the same groups, while adding an enhanced smoking-cessation module and an animated, introductory tutorial. Plans to expand the program to more members in 2006 and beyond are under development.
Founded in 1939, Blue Shield of California is one of the state’s leading healthcare companies. Headquartered in San Francisco, the not-for-profit corporation has more than 3.2 million members, 4,300 employees and more than 20 office locations throughout California. For more information on Blue Shield, visit the company’s website at http://www.mylifepath.com/.
For more information, please contact: Patrice Smith, +1-415-229-6366, patrice.smith@blueshieldca.com, or Elise Anderson, +1-310-568-2866, elise.anderson@blueshieldca.com, both of Blue Shield of California.
Blue Shield of California
CONTACT: Patrice Smith, +1-415-229-6366, patrice.smith@blueshieldca.com,or Elise Anderson, +1-310-568-2866, elise.anderson@blueshieldca.com, both ofBlue Shield of California
Web site: http://www.mylifepath.com/