Live a Healthy Lifestyle, Get a Gift Card!

With the skyrocketing cost of healthcare these days, insurance companies are doing all they can to stay afloat and keep people healthy. 

One way to do that is by reducing the number of claims by the insured. 

How to reduce that number?  Good preventive care.

But preventive care is easier said than done.  Individuals have to take a certain amount of accountability such as eating healthy, not smoking, and visiting their primary care physicians to receive preventive screenings for different ailments.  Add into that an uncertain economic condition and peoples’ time and money is at a premium. 

Independence Blue Cross has now done something about it.  They have created an incentive program rewarding healthy living with gift cards.  The Healthy Lifestyles Rewards programs awards the insured ‘healthpoints,’ for taking certain steps to stay healthy.  These include exercising, visiting doctors, preventive screenings, as well as a no-smoking pledge.

As consumers accrue the healthpoints, they can redeem them for up to $200 in gift cards redeemable at a number of different retailers and restaurants.  An impetus for this program was the success of frequent flyer programs and airline credit cards.  ‘People respond to rewards,’ says Esther Nash, senior medical director for Independence. ‘Our program encourages members to … stay healthy and live longer and more enjoyable lives.’

The rising cost of healthcare is a concern for all Americans, whether in times of economic prosperity or in times recession.  Keeping people healthy by preventive measures has been determined to be the single best way to reduce these rising costs.  It is exciting when something we love like gift cards gets to play a role in keeping people healthy!