Health insurance 101: How Blues plans reward individual wellness

Fourth in a series of blog posts featuring frequently asked questions about health care insurance.

Last week, we discussed the rise of consumer-directed health careamong insurance plans. Those plans sometimes involve provisions designed to encourage or even reward individuals who lead healthy lifestyles.

What incentives are insurance companies offering to members for pursuing healthy lifestyles?

An emerging subset of consumer-directed health plans involves wellness and care-management initiatives. These plans give members the opportunity to lower their premiums and copayments by taking steps to improve their overall health, such as quitting smoking or losing weight.

The Michigan Blues offer a variety of wellness-focused plans through the Healthy Blue Choices^SM  portfolio. Healthy Blue Outcomes^SM, our newest product beginning July 1, rewards people who demonstrate tangible improvements in their health with more affordable health insurance coverage.

All of our Healthy Blue Choices programs ask members to complete online health assessments and meet certain health criteria. They encourage participants at risk for certain chronic conditions to speak with health coaches about their personal health issues, goals, treatment options and ways to improve their overall health.

Next week:The rise of health savings accounts.