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| The Basics | Some insurers pay you to get healthy
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Insurers are beginning to see they can trim their own costs -- and those of their insured members -- by rewarding and even subsidizing healthy behavior.
By Bankrate.com
If the price of gasoline has been making you ill, take a look at your health insurance costs and you'll really feel sick.
But there is some relief available if you commit to a healthy lifestyle.
Since 2000, health insurance premiums have risen 75%, and increasingly, employees are asked to foot more of the bill. In 2005, the average employee was paying $3,500 annually for health-care premiums, which doesn't include out-of-pocket costs for things like prescriptions and co-pays. That's roughly twice as much as you would spend on gas in a year if you drove 15,000 miles a year and got 20 miles to the gallon.
"Over the last five years, health-care premium costs are far outpacing inflation," says Joel Miller, senior vice president for operations at the National Coalition on Health Care. "It's starting to put a real crimp in family budgets."
There might be no quick fix to the health-care costs conundrum, but insurers are beginning to realize they can cut their own costs -- and those of their insured members -- by encouraging and rewarding healthy behavior. To that end, insurers are helping to subsidize everything from gym memberships to food bills and offering incentives such as T-shirts and iPods for people willing to work up a sweat.
There are lots of things you can't control that will affect the cost of your insurance, like your age and pre-existing conditions. But here are a few programs that reward you for the choices you make every day which affect your health.
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Eat healthy
Physicians Plus Insurance is hoping to get its members to eat healthier by encouraging them to join a community-supported-agriculture (CSA) farm. In exchange for a one-time fee, CSA members receive locally grown, freshly harvested fruits and vegetables each week throughout the growing season. CSA members insured by Physicians Plus can receive up to a $200 rebate each year for joining a farm.
Kathryne Auerback, marketing director for Physicians Plus, says the innovative program got rave reviews from its members when the pilot debuted in 2004, and more than 100 signed up just days after the insurer officially rolled out the program in January 2006. "We feel that (community-supported agriculture) is a really healthy model for the community, and it's a convenient way for our members to eat their veggies," she says.
Exercise often
Medica is one insurer that's subsidizing exercise. Join a qualifying gym, exercise at least eight times a month, and it will reimburse $20 of your monthly membership. Members can also integrate that into a free online plan, says Greg Bury, a spokesman for Medica. "Members can track their workouts, do meal planning and engage with a personal fitness coach," he says.
The incentive is working: A survey of the insurer's members showed that those who have enrolled in the program are far more likely to exercise at least twice a week than they were before. Even those who belonged to a gym before the program started are hitting the gym more often. Half of the people in the program have reported that they have lost weight and have more energy.
Stop smoking
Free and reduced-cost smoking-cessation programs are offered by many insurers, including Group Health Cooperative. Individual telephone sessions or in-person group sessions are offered.
While the cost of smoking-cessation programs can be significant for individuals -- sometimes over $2,000 -- the benefits that accrue to insurers are likely to be even more significant, since the cost of smoking-related illness over a lifetime is far higher. Studies show that people who start a cessation program whose costs are entirely covered by the insurance company are more likely to quit for good.
Measure your health
Sometimes just knowing how healthy you are is enough to spur a change to healthier habits. So goes the reasoning of administrators of the King County health plan in Washington. The county, which is self-insured, has created a program that will allow people to reduce their premiums just by taking a health-risk assessment. Members can lower their premiums further by engaging in healthy habits -- driving the speed limit, wearing sunscreen and wearing a helmet when bicycling or motorcycling.
The program, which will start taking data in 2006 before being fully implemented in 2007, was partially a response to the increasing health-care costs of the county's 13,000 employees. Over the course of three years, program administrators hope to save $40 million on health-care costs.
Play for prizes
Encouraging exercise by offering rewards like fitness equipment and airline tickets has proved successful for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Members enrolled in the program get points for each day that they exercise. Those who accrue enough points can redeem them for everything from t-shirts to electronics.
Better yet, you don't have to be training for a marathon to get rewarded. Exercise, as defined by the plan, encompasses everything from mowing the lawn and walking the dog to running and biking.
How do you find out if your insurer provides a program like this? Check its Web site or call the customer-service line. Such programs tend to be well-promoted, and insurers are eager to have you participate, says Auerback. "Over time, people who lead healthy lifestyles have an impact on the cost of health care just as those who make less healthy lifestyle choices," she says. In other words, working on your bottom line (such as it is) can help the insurer's, too. "If we can encourage people who may not otherwise have made (healthy choices) in their lives, we think that can only be a good thing."
While Miller notes that small economic bonuses like this won't make the overall issue of skyrocketing health-care costs go away, they can make a difference to individuals. "We need to be doing a lot of different things, and voluntary healthy lifestyle incentive programs is just one of the long-term strategies," he says.
Erin Peterson wrote this article for Bankrate.com
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