MetroPlus Health Plan Announces New Member Engagement and Rewards Program
Feb 21, 2017
MetroPlusHealth Health Plan announced today the introduction of its member engagement and rewards program. The MetroPlusHealth Healthy Rewards Program is designed to engage members in specific healthy activities that improve their health, quality of life, and well-being.
The new program encourages MetroPlusHealth members to earn reward points for completing healthy activities. Members have already started receiving informational material about the program and can call or log on to MetroPlusHealth’s website to learn more. Members can use the reward points they earn to order healthy items from the MetroPlusHealth Healthy Rewards Catalog. As individuals complete their healthy activities, they will be able to visit the Healthy Rewards Portal via smartphone, tablet, or desktop to track their activities, redeem their reward points, and access personalized wellness tools and resources. The program also provides support to members over the phone.
Members can earn rewards when they take steps to manage their diabetes, attend pre- and postpartum visits for a healthy pregnancy, take an annual Health Risk Assessment, and more. Many of the healthy activities rewarded through this program are tied specifically to chronic conditions. For example, a person who has diabetes can receive a reward for completing a HbA1c test to measure blood sugar level, or a person who has asthma can earn points by simply refilling their long-term asthma controller. Other rewards are tied to preventive health activities, such as visiting a primary care provider within 60 days of joining MetroPlusHealth or participating in the Step-Up Walking Challenge.
The program is administered by Finity, a leading health technology company. Finity’s Health Intelligence Platform uses ongoing, multimedia engagement and gamification through reward points to encourage members to participate in healthy activities. All rewards are tied to specific activities that can be easily tracked and measured. The closed-loop technology tracks member engagement by medium and activity, and evolves based on behavior. This targeted engagement methodology is proven effective to improve member health, increase compliance, and lower health care costs.
The rewards that members can earn cover a wide spectrum of popular items – ones that promote physical activity (e.g., baseball mitts, basketballs, quilted sleeping bags, and activity trackers), others focused on nutrition and health (blenders, digital thermometers, polarized sunglasses), others for relaxation and fun (deluxe art sets), and still others for new families (boppy pillows, baby strollers, and car seats), plus much more. The higher the points earned, the more valuable the reward redeemed will be.
“These rewards provide an easy and fun way to assist our members in their efforts to stay healthy and allow those enrolled with MetroPlusHealth to reach their individualized health goals,” said Seth Diamond, Chief Operating Officer of MetroPlusHealth. “The program is also cost-effective. By keeping members healthy today, we avoid more costly interventions later.”
“This is the most innovative engagement and rewards program in New York City,” said Alexandra MacDonald, Executive Vice President of Population Health Management at Finity. “Using the health intelligence we gather for MetroPlusHealth members, we can personalize engagement to maximize health behavior change. This results in high program participation, significant cost savings, and increased prevention and compliance.”
“One of our most important goals is to improve not only our member’s health, well-being and satisfaction, but also the member experience with the plan itself,” Diamond said. “We are confident our new Healthy Rewards Program is a powerful way to help achieve that goal.”