Engage Members with Incentives Programs

Why Is an Incentives Program Important?

Incentives are a way to encourage consumers to increase their engagement in making healthy lifestyle choices. Members and patients who are offered an incentive are more likely to complete a wellness visit, maintain a healthy lifestyle, or manage their conditions.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has developed guidelines on Rewards and Incentives Programs (RI Programs) due to their increased use and positive correlation to improved health outcomes. These guidelines are applicable today and enable Medicare Advantage Organizations (MAOs) and other organizations to offer health-driven incentives programs that may be applied to an expanded list of health-related services and activities. A popular incentives program is offering gift cards to members upon completion of certain activities.

What Should You Consider for an Incentives Program?

An organization has significant flexibility in designing RI Programs based on its population’s interests, abilities, and needs. The organization also has the ability to determine specific services, activities, or behaviors that are subject to rewards or incentives. The implementation of an incentive program is easy when working with an experienced partner.

Gift Card Incentive Examples

• Offer gift cards that can be used toward “purchasing” a tangible reward, as outlined by CMS
• Provide members with a selection of gift cards to choose from as a reward for completing a wellness visit
• Offer tiered gift card amounts based on meeting varying levels of health-related accomplishments

How Can You Establish and Fulfill a Gift Card Incentives Program?

To develop a comprehensive gift card program, here are some considerations Graphcom uses when working with clients.

• Identify services, activities, or behaviors to reward
• Determine gift card selection and denomination to offer
• Create a communication channel and workflow between member and fulfillment teams
  • Identify services that qualify for a gift card
  • Determine which gift card a member selected upon completion of an activity
  • Verify that a member has completed an activity
  • Forward completion and gift card information to partner
• Acquisition and inventory management
• Fulfillment
  • Log gift card mag stripes and/or barcodes for security
  • Shipment method and tracking requirements
  • Packaging considerations

It is important to provide services after a gift card is shipped to a member. Providing organizations with the status of gift cards in transit, resolving missing or lost cards, and facilitating exchanges help to increase the success of an RI Program, and consequently, member interaction and loyalty.

Who Is Graphcom?

Graphcom is experienced in fulfilling gift card incentives with over 75,000 cards sorted, packaged, and shipped annually. Graphcom ships gift cards in simple but secure packaging to ensure a safe delivery. Upon mailing the gift cards, Graphcom can track each shipment for confirmation and accuracy. This information is made available to our clients for member inquiries regarding card status.

Additionally, Graphcom can deactivate any gift card if it is lost or stolen. Graphcom will gather and analyze the data of the incentives program and will identify trends in the response rates. This helps to shape future outreaches and increase return on investment.

At Graphcom, we believe the best results are achieved in a collaborative environment where passion, innovation, and creative expression unite. We’re committed to developing a fulfillment strategy to complement an incentive program to improve member health.