I was a personal trainer in Canada for 12 years until about 8 years ago. Now I work in the health care. Would be happy to help. Shoot me a PM if you think I can be of help.

bump!

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Drive it through incentive/cost pressures.

I understand insurance companies have to have diverse risk pools. However, I think within pools like a "company plan" there's certainly opportunity.

I'd be OK with a company contributing less to the plan up-front, then offering the rest of the contribution contingent upon verifiable participation in wellness.

I'd say it would take about $2000 a year or so to sufficiently motivate people making $50k to $75k a year. Could be a ratio.

You could make the $2000 split out like:
-you get $500 back for going to your yearly physical AND actually doing the blood tests
-you get $500 back for reducing a risk factor if you are over the risk limit (lower your BMI, reduce BP, get into a program)
-you get $500 back for proving a fitness program: submitting steps, bike miles, run event result, personal trainer sign off
-you get $500 for participating in an employee fund raiser with a fitness challenge (like a race for cure or something)

You HAVE to make people's wallet hurt for being a fat lazy ass. Yes, they have to be covered also and will still cost the plans more.......but they'll at least feel some sting for their behaviors.

My employer does this, however the sum of money is $200 max. Used to be you had to fill out a questionaire asking you about those topics you listed, eg I had my cholesterol checked, enter date and value. It changed to getting $50 for that questionaire and you had to do extra things to earn toward the remaining $150. But you had to log in daily to their system which I found a hassle, and I was unwilling to double enter my time / activity / distance as it would not auto sync w/ garmin, which at the time was already difficult to pair to garminconnect.

Ultimately I concluded my time was worth more than the taxed $200 was. For 2 grand though, I'd reconsider jumping through their silly tracking hoops.

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To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.

USA born so not much of a Canada help. But as a former trainer and exercise physiologist, also wellness director at my former company... I would look for better incentives. We would give away gift cards. Which in itself is a little lame but if we had a $50 prize people were dead set in winning it. Also, I would like to see companies incorporate more fun incentives. Most of us get money back for our insurance if we got a gym membership. How about make it a bigger incentive but one third is for signing and keeping it active, another half is for checking in.

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I still lapped everyone on the couch!

Look into Kaiser Permanente. They are heavily into wellness and it's impact on overall health. They do an incentive program on the premium based on completion of wellness related activities.

Hello Drdan and All,

My health care insurance ... UnitedHeatthcare ... Sends blurbs every so often ... see link to examples below and also offers free membership to several different gym operators .... I have been using 24 hour fitness but they may include the YMCA later this year and if they do I will switch ... the Y has a better pool.

The blurbs are about getting flu shots .... getting yearly physicals ..... weight loss ..... learning ... etc.

UnitedHealthcare has a Learning Academy (sample blurb):

Did you know that learning new skills may keep an aging mind sharp?1 The updated UnitedHealthcare Learning Academy experience has interactive online courses with great topics such as:

•

Brain Power: How to Improve Your Brain Health

•

Be Happy: How to Bring More Joy to Your Life

•

Becoming Dr. You: Essentials to a Healthier, Happier Life
If you've already taken some of the online courses and loved them, great! You'll find the new UnitedHealthcare Learning Academy experience has a fresh new look and feel. And there are new shorter courses for people who just want a quick burst of learning.
Don't miss an opportunity to learn something new and keep your brain sharp. Check out the new UnitedHealthcare Learning Academy today.
Please note, if you previously have taken an online course, you will need to create an account in the new UnitedHealthcare Learning Academy.

START LEARNING

With Renew by UnitedHealthcare you have access to a broad range of health and wellness resources. Sign in or register on your plan website, then find the My Health and Wellness tab to explore all your plan has to offer.

SIGN IN

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Below is a current link:


http://view.news.uhcmedicaresolutions.com/...519211046c5bbf9ffc48

So they are working on it.

Also our subsidary health plan provider has occasional seminars with doctors that we are invited to attend.

One was on cardiac intervention for various alilments with our local cardiac doctor (Palomar Health) and another doctor from associate Mayo clinic and was well attended with Q & A following. (soft drinks, coffee, tea, and some snacks provided)

Palomar also invited us to be part of a focus group for improving their advertising and communications with our patient group.

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Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster

Wow! Thanks for the responses everyone - greatly appreciated.

I'll be following up with some PMs to those who have replied on the thread.

Doesn't matter whether you are in Canada or not - I'll be looking to contrast Canada-like systems (publically funded healthcare) with non-Canada-like systems.

Thanks - I had come across some of the work by Kaiser - but I'm struggling to find a relevant contact. If anyone has suggestions or can help me make a connection that would be much appreciated.

http://view.news.uhcmedicaresolutions.com/...a3ae88f1548ab37f0ae4

https://www.medicare.uhc.com/...EGEM2981%7c::8008734

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Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster