Rise in lifestyle diseases has made health insurance necessary for every individual. But does the health insurance policy suffice the worries of the individuals who are exposed to various risks in every walk of their life? Health insurance plays its role in an unfortunate event when hospitalization is needed, but what are the services which could help you avoid such stressful events? Here, is when the wellness programs offered by your insurance company play its role. Let’s understand the wellness programs offerings in detail.
Wellness encompasses main aspects of personal health that include physical, emotional, psychological, occupational, social and intellectual. Wellness, not only help individual to live the life illness free but also offers a holistic perspective to an individual to manage the life balancing harmonious functioning of the organs through various activities.
Insurance Companies across the industry are introducing wellness and disease management features to ensure that their policyholders are healthy and claims are reduced in the long term as the insurance regulator no longer allows terminating a policy mid-way.
Now-a-days most health insurance products are packaged with wellness benefits which help the policyholders take preventive measures that manages their health risks exacerbate.
Health care services and wellness programs are provided by almost all stand-alone health insurance companies & General insurance companies aiming to provide holistic solutions for healthcare needs of their customers.
Some of the value added benefits are in the form of preventive advice from a medical practitioner through telephonic or online mode, health educational library with many packed preventive features, second opinion, and specialist consultation with follow up sessions, wellness discount coupons, 24X7 customer service and newsletters.
These packages definitely encourage people to remain healthy and stay fit. Insurers have come a long way in this context. Insurance companies reward their policyholders in form of discounts in premium for a healthy lifestyle, benchmark LDL/HDL cholesterol levels, blood sugar levels, blood pressure level, triglyceride levels, body mass index etc.
The program intents to value add insurance services to their customers by providing discount offers on the service charges with help of the tied up service providers which help assess the health of their policy holders. This accomplish initial step i.e., evaluating the health of insured through interventional wellness program.
With wellness program, insurers are looking forward to optimizing the health insurance marketing process through customer engagement. Developing a clear understanding of the geographic, demographic, and lifestyle factors of insured is a powerful marketing tool developed by the Insurance companies now-a-days to engage their customers. Wellness programs are also linked with the inbuilt health benefits in the insurance policies, which allows insured to avail the services from the providers with whom the insurance companies are partnered.
Insured customers take the benefits of discount offerings to assess their health during the policy period. The good health results seen in the assessments help the customers to earn the bonus points which in return are redeemed to get additional discounts on the renewal premium.
Insurance companies utilize this new concept to connect with their customers to proliferate and endorse the concept of holistic wellness among individuals which will also help people to lead successful healthy life.
Workplace Wellness:
Insurance companies provide wellness solutions to their Corporates under the Group health insurance scheme. The core focus of wellness program is health engagement and behavior changes achieved through integrating health assessment data, employee behavioral insights, and wellness rewards.
Employee benefit programme also includes, Weight Loss Programs, Diabetes Management program, Healthy Heart program, Pregnancy Care Program, Smoking Cessation Program assuring stronger returns on employee health investments.
Modern day Wellness Engagement:
With world becoming techno savvy wellness programmes have become outcome oriented, personalized and high engaged through most comprehensive web and mobile platforms. Integration with external trackers & apps – Apple Watch, Fitbit, Google Fit, Samsung Health, etc. has made it highly comprehensive.
Innovative products in the market offer wellness benefit including programs to help customers stop smoking, diabetes management programs, weight loss programs, and preventative health screenings. Some products in market reward insured customers with incentives using wearable devices that help them keep physically healthy.
These devices share health data with insurance company on real time basis. Data is analysed to access the good health of the insured customers to reward them financially when it comes to premium discounts.
Benefits of Wellness programme:
Wellness Programs Improve Individuals Health Behaviors:
The core of well-designed health insurance product is well managed wellness programme extended to insured customers. And, core of well organised wellness programme is good health behaviour change brought in the individuals.
Wellness programme help people maintain a healthy lifestyle reducing their health risks. Wellness programmes embraces a body-mind-spirit concept and represents a perceived positive state of well – being in a holistic manner.
Modern concept of Wellness have evolved to preventive healthcare management from reactive healthcare management, it includes each primal and preventive sickness management. Wellness is lively method through which individuals become responsive to, and create selections towards, a lot of roaring and healthy existence.
With, this ideology several insurance companies offering wellness programmes free of cost bundled with their health insurance policies.
Wellness Programs Reduce Elevated Health Risks:
People have started adapting the lifestyle & work culture which invites lots of stress and strain. They hardly find any time for meditation, physical exercise, yoga etc. which could reduce the stress of any kind.
Unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, habits like smoking, tobacco chewing in return causes health problems like, high blood sugar, increased blood pressure, increased cholesterol levels etc.
Reducing such health risks is foundation to achieve good health and wellness programme proves to be one of the best ways to help the individuals to manage good health.
Wellness programme extended by insurance companies offers discounts on various wellness services like, pharmaceuticals, diagnostic tests, medicines, dental procedures, information on well-being in form of health tips and experts advices etc.
Wellness Programs Reduce Health Care Costs:
Health care spending is increasing faster than the savings. Individuals are facing financial crisis in managing their chronic conditions such as Asthma, Diabetes mellitus, Hypertension, Arthritis etc.
Major driver of high healthcare costs is, unhealthy lifestyle like sedentary living, lack of physical activity, undernourishment, & habits like tobacco chewing, cigarette smoking etc. and are responsible for many chronic conditions.
Other drivers of high healthcare costs are, increasing costs of drugs/medicines needed to manage the chronic conditions, expensive technologies & procedures such as MRI, CT Scan etc. Wellness programmes designed by the Insurance companies help the insured customers decrease medical costs by offering the services in discounted rates with help of mutual agreements they have with the service providers.
Bottom line is that, when managed correctly, wellness programs give individuals incentives & strategies to adopt and maintain healthy behaviors along with health insurance which safeguards individuals in unfortunate events.