EARNING VITALITY BUCKS WITHIN THE PERSONAL PATHWAYS ENVIRONMENT

Driving Engagement    Vitality Bucks

The research literature demonstrates the importance of rewards in encouraging behavior change. To ensure that Vitality is non-discriminatory to all members regardless of health status, Vitality Bucks are allocated at three different levels for the base program for undertaking activities in line with the Personal Pathway and for achieving specific goals.

The goal of the Vitality reward program is that members will have roughly equivalent opportunities to earn Vitality Bucks regardless of their age, sex, and unique health risk factors.

• Members already leading healthy lifestyles will receive rewards for maintaining their lifestyle;
• Members with known health risk factors will receive rewards for making positive changes in their lifestyles and for actually reducing or returning their risk factors to normal; and,
• Members with known chronic conditions will receive rewards for participating in their employer’s disease management program.

The elegance of the Personal Pathways approach is that it creates the appropriate incentives across the entire population, regardless of health status, age and physical ability. In this regard, Vitality aims to keep healthy members out of the healthcare system and prolong the progression of disease in at-risk and sick members all of which has been shown to positively impact healthcare costs. The allocation of additional Vitality Bucks for individuals who are at-risk or ill is an important mechanism to overcome barriers to change and to drive continued engagement in the program.