Only one-in-three wellness plan participants actively engage on a weekly basis

DALLAS — Americans with wellness plans said that while most like their plans, just 36% are engaged in the plan on a weekly basis throughout the entire year, according to a HealthMine survey of 806 consumers released Thursday. 

 

The survey found that 38% of surveyed Americans who have a sponsored healthcare plan also have a sponsored wellness plan and 35% of respondents said they were in a wellness plan that included both lifestyle management and disease management tools. 

 

Overall respondents felt that a wellness plan helped them manage health, but are unsure if it helped to lower or improve healthcare costs. While 70% of respondents said that their wellness plan helped them manage their health, just 38% said it helped them manage healthcare costs. In addition, 71% of respondents said that they were in the program to care for their health as a primary incentive.

 

Many wellness plans are initiated with monitoring devices but less than half (45%) of wellness plans automatically update data from tracking devices. This is despite the fact that 70% of respondents said that their wellness plans were based on completing exercise-related activities.

 

"In healthcare delivery today, more than ever, employers and payers must engage their members with health information that is personally relevant, clinically focused and automatically available anytime, anywhere," said Bryce Williams, HealthMine CEO. "Clinical data tied to lifestyle management gives consumers real measurements to see if they are making progress. That creates sustainable engagement, which delivers real healthcare cost savings."

 

The HealthMine survey was fielded by Survey Sampling International from Dec. 29 to 31, 2014.