Insurer offers healthy bonus

Accountability, intelligent indexing and implementation!  Several ingredients necessary to create the opportunity to outperform competitors, “eat their lunch” and create value for both the good and the very best clients in their portfolio. However, will this ultimately be a profitable choice when the beans are accurately counted?  Hopefully, UnitedHealthcare has done sufficient...

Individual consumers have begun to shoulder increasing percentages of healthcare costs.  As costs continue to rise, healthy consumers will become increasingly disillusioned with paying for the consequences of others' unhealthy lifestyles.  If programs exist that reward consumers for making good choices, the insurance companies that offer them may grow in popularity.  Consumers who fail...

In my opinion, this is the right way to go. Money incentives have proven to be the most efficient way to change peoples habits - the best example seems to be the rising petrol prize which seems to make Americans prefer smaller, more economic, less consuming cars.

Providing incentives for people to engage or maintain healthy lifestyle choices is a good idea. Those who are already doing the right thing will see an immediate benefit while those who are not will see that there are direct cost consequences associated with their lifestyle. This type of program can be replicated. But in the near term, it will just cost shift to those companies that have a greater...

There are ways to control costs, reduce premiums and provide access to quality healthcare plans. Creativity in plan design and customization of plans are key areas insurers are exploring in order to meet the demands of current trends and to build and retain customer loyalty.

 - a large percentage of illness in working Americans is due to    poor lifestyle choices - this plan offers direct financial benefits to employees who modify   their lifestyle - there is no doubt it will cut health care costs, and likely will   catch on widely

With this program in place the "consumer" has an incentive to take better care of health. We, as physicians, can speak to patients till we are blue in the face. Some will not change habits. However, with meaningful incentives-i.e.money, some indeed will. In the long run this should cut healthcare costs. Again the incentive must be meaningful!