Experts suggest that the platform used by several Canadian insurers has helped cut medication and disability costs
Despite the well-documented ill effects of physical inactivity, smoking, and other behavioural and physical factors, people all over the world are still not doing their best to avoid these threats. That includes Canada, where billions of dollars are reportedly lost every year because of direct and indirect costs of certain health risk factors.
Those costs often end up flowing through Canadian workplaces, which have to contend with issues like absenteeism, decreased productivity, presenteeism, and other health-related issues. To mitigate and prevent such problems, a number of Canadian companies have turned to behaviour-change programs — one of which has reportedly had a significant, national-level impact.
BestLifeRewarded — which claims to run the gold-standard behaviour-change technology platform for several Canadian insurance companies, as well as its own direct member platform BestLifeRewarded.com — has released the findings of a study quantifying its financial impact on members’ behaviour.
The study, conducted by a team of external experts from H. Krueger & Associates, reviewed a sample of 6,899 BestLifeRewarded.com members. After doing an initial health risk assessment (HRA) based on the members’ health records, the experts performed a follow-up HRA examining the members at least one year later.
The risk assessment examined five modifiable health-risk factor categories across all members: physical activity, smoking, excess weight, low fruit and vegetable consumption, and excessive use of alcohol. According to BestLifeRewarded, the five factors result in direct and indirect health costs of about $64 billion across the Canadian economy.
The experts found that the BestLifeRewarded platform, which supports employee well-being for over 12,000 Canadian companies and more than 3 million Canadians, resulted in significant improvements in health behaviours. Those improvements, they estimated, have saved the Canadian economy $73.28 per member every year.
Based on typical costs paid by employers, including medications along with short- and long-term disability, the BestLifeRewarded platform resulted in an estimated $30.45 (42% of the total cost savings) per member saved annually. With premature mortality, the number goes up to $60.17 (82% of the total).
“For almost a decade, we’ve delivered exceptional behaviour change results, so having access to the tangible savings for both the healthcare system and directly to employers reinforces that our proven interventions provide meaningful outcomes,” said BestLifeRewarded co-founder Susanne Cookson. “We are excited about continuing our mission to improve the health of Canadians and positively impact our economy.”
