Healthcare rewards programs help drive employee engagement and affordability

Rewards programs are recognized for their effectiveness across many industries, including credit cards, banking, retail shopping, airlines and restaurants. Companies understand that rewards programs are a great way to earn trust and encourage repeat engagement.

In healthcare, rewards programs help create enduring relationships with members, empowering them to proactively manage their health and wellbeing. Healthcare rewards help build awareness and appreciation of the health plan and increase commitment to take positive steps to improve health.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross) is continuously innovating to offer healthcare rewards that are valued by members, drive engagement and promote healthy behaviors. Blue Cross rewards drive meaningful value for employees and employers, inspiring members to invest in their wellbeing to achieve a healthier future. The impact for employers can be a healthier, more engaged workforce, with gains in productivity and lower healthcare costs.

Blue Cross integrates rewards seamlessly with care navigation

A key to the success of Blue Cross rewards is integration with Blue Care Advisor^SM. Blue Care Advisor brings together health, wellbeing and navigation into one easy-to-use digital resource. Asking consumers to take incremental action – like logging into individual programs, changing platforms and apps, etc. – creates disruption in the experience and decreases likelihood of engagement in their healthcare. In contrast, Blue Care Advisor is designed with the member at the center, so they can more easily navigate total benefits, including rewards, to get expert guidance for the care they need to achieve better overall health.

Data show this approach results in better health outcomes for members and savings for their employers. In fact, members registered with Blue Care Advisor are twice as likely to complete preventive care and 22% less likely to visit the emergency room than non-registered members.¹ When rewards are added to Blue Care Advisor, member engagement improves in key areas such as completed health assessments, registrations and return rate.

Increased interaction with Blue Care Advisor is just one positive impact from participation in Blue Cross rewards.

Blue Cross rewards deliver positive results

• Employee engagement: The registration rate for Blue Care Advisor is 170% higher among self-insured employers who offer the rewards program compared to those without.² This participation fuels the positive health outcomes and cost savings driven by Blue Care Advisor.
• Member satisfaction: Rewards enhance the member experience, as members who are satisfied with rewards post a higher Net Promoter Score (NPS) than those without rewards.³
• Enhanced employee health data and personalized experience: With rewards and Blue Care Advisor, members complete health assessments at a rate 8.4 times higher than those without rewards. This helps employers understand overall employee population health and concerns, to make more informed benefit decisions. 
• Lower total cost of care: Rewards provide incentives for members to take actions known to support long-term affordability, with preventive exams like mammograms increasing by 22%.

Rewards target health and prevention with meaningful incentives

Blue Cross offers three tiers of rewards: All options award points for health assessments and exercise tracking. Moving up to the second tier expands reward-eligible activities to include nutrition and sleep tracking, and healthy habits and lifestyle changes known to help prevent or manage costly chronic conditions. The third tier enables employers to integrate their other benefit programs with rewards, encouraging members to engage in high-value programs like smoking cessation, financial planning and more.

Depending on the tier, rewards offer meaningful financial incentives, such as gift cards, charitable donations in the member’s name, health savings account (HSA) contributions, premium reduction, and sweepstakes entries.

Offering a variety of reward options is essential to motivate all employees. Blue Cross has found that drawings for gift cards are especially effective at driving interaction. Employers with drawings have an 11% higher rewards engagement rate compared to those without.⁴ Drawings are an effective way for employers to turbocharge their rewards and drive even higher participation.

Leveraging rewards to improve health and manage costs

Blue Cross rewards increase employee engagement and member satisfaction. But more importantly, rewards create incentives for preventive care to drive affordability.

The impact of rewards can be measured by positive changes in member behavior (healthy actions) and avoidance of wasteful and unnecessary care. By completing healthy actions, like preventive exams and screenings, members help achieve cost savings through early diagnosis. Conditions are diagnosed earlier, when they are easily treatable, to avoid a costly intervention in the future.

As one of the most recognized and trusted health insurers,⁵ Blue Cross has designed rewards programs that boost employee engagement and healthy behavior changes, while controlling healthcare costs. We continue to innovate our offerings based on data, insights and member preferences.

Contact your Blue Cross account representative to discuss healthcare rewards and incentives that will engage your employee population.