Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

In a recent Wall Street Journal/Harris Poll, it was shown that the public is changing its attitude about paying higher health insurance rates for people that live unhealthy lifestyles. This should be considered a great opportunity for human resource departments to offer new health plans including incentives to follow healthier living.

One relatively new idea is that is gainging momentum is offering employees incentives in the form of lower premiums or co-payments, for those workers who do things like stop smoking, exercise and control their weight.

John Shull, chief executive of Gordian Health Solutions said, "Most chronic illnesses are tied to lifestyle-driven choices such as poor diet, lack of exercise or smoking. When offered a choice of lower health care premiums, along with the programs and health coaching to help them succeed in living a healthier life, employees have all the right reasons to make changes."

Shull offered several questions an employer should ask about using incentives when choosing a health management partner for companies mapping out requirements for incentives and developing RFIs for 2007:

1. Baseline Matters.

Does the vendor have the ability to get a baseline measurement that will be used to determine the current health management needs of all company employees before a health, lifestyle and disease management program is designed, and are they flexible enough to offer programs to those at low, medium and high risk?

2. Integration Counts.

Can the same vendor give you "one-stop shopping," offering both a health improvement program and an incentive program designed to give participating employees discounts on their health premiums or co-pays?

3. IT Enables Efficient Incentive Management.

When managing the incentive program, does the vendor have an IT platform that interfaces with your payroll system and that provides periodic management reports?

4. Communicate and Respond to Employees.

When you decide to launch the program, can the vendor offer you a company-branded communications program to educate employees about how the program works and what the program benefits are?

5. Match Incentives With Health Behaviors.

Does the vendor know how to design an incentive management and health management program that dovetails into the company's unique corporate culture?