Forget broccoli, blueberries or edamame.
A new healthful diet campaign from HealthPartners has more modest aims.
Thick coupon packets are arriving in mailboxes around Minnesota and western Wisconsin that offer $1 off on such items as Dreamfields high-protein pasta, sugar-free Jell-O pudding, Extend cookies, and diet V8 Splash.
The Bloomington-based insurer’s idea is to get members to make slight, gradual improvements in their diets, instead of hoping for a more dramatic — but likely unrealistic — change.
“If someone does an Iron Man triathlon, they didn’t just wake up one morning and do it. They took many steps to get there,” said Dr. Michael McGrail, HealthPartners vice president and associate medical director. “For many people, going from a high-sodium, high-fat diet to a completely healthy lifestyle may seem, frankly, unattainable.”
The idea is that big changes come in small steps, said McGrail, whose letter with the coupon mailing encourages people to “eat smart and save big.”
The first round of packets is being shipped to 42,219 HealthPartners members who have filed claims related to diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. The Bloomington-based insurance company said it plans to add another 38,000 members who are part of self-insured company plans in next quarter’s mailing.
About 130 million people live with chronic diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure, and there’s broad recognition among health care experts that lifestyle choices play a significant role in prevention and treatment. One study estimates that 25 percent of health costs are determined by diet and other behaviors, such as drinking and driving.
Adding an incentive
It’s unclear how many companies or plans are using food coupons as a carrot to coax people to eat better. The most common approaches to wellness initiatives are websites, case management programs and nurse advice lines, according to surveys from Mercer, a New York-based human resources consulting company.
While three-quarters of the nation’s employers have devised some form of wellness plan to encourage better habits, the programs often are expensive with iffy outcomes.
Coupon promotions like the one from HealthPartners, as well as gift cards and lotteries, are growing in popularity as a tactic that may be a simpler and more cost-effective, said Renya Spak, a health management expert and principal at Mercer.
“This is part of a broader movement in rethinking how we change behavior and rethinking incentives more broadly,” she said. “Employers are spending over $100 [each] to incentivize individuals to do very simple things around their health. If you multiply that by the number of heads in a company, you can see how many zeros follow in incentive budgets.”
HealthPartners has hired Linkwell Health to manage the program for the first year, at “minimal” investment, a HealthPartners spokesman said. The insurer controls what kind of offers are included in each mailing. Diabetics receive coupons to coax them to buy low-sugar options, while packets aimed at those with high blood pressure will be skewed with low-sodium offers.
The mailings also include discounts on blood pressure monitors, nutrition scales and a book on healthful eating.
Linkwell Health, based in Needham, Mass., works with more than a dozen health plans around the country and a growing list of food manufacturers such as Campbell Soup, Kraft Foods and McNeil Nutritionals, the maker of Splenda.
Linkwell’s president and founder, Ben Gardner, touts research from Nielsen that shows people with diabetes eat 115 percent more potato chips and 75 percent more frozen entrees than others.
“The U.S. consumer is addicted to high fat, high salt and high sugar,” said Gardner. “A fresh carrot doesn’t necessarily satiate that desire.
“We know that we’re better able to get them to try a baked Lay’s potato chip rather than a baked potato,” he added. “Is a baked Lay’s better for you? Probably not. But we are going to increase the odds that we’ll switch them from fried to baked.”
A practical approach
In an ideal world, no one would be dialing down expectations. But after decades of teaching and preaching about exercise and nutrition, Americans’ waistlines have only expanded, along with health care costs from diabetes and heart disease.
Even the federal government’s recent dietary guidelines had an air of resignation: Eat less.
HealthPartners’ McGrail said it’s time to be pragmatic.
“Traditionally we’ve thought about this very much in absolute terms — this is the healthy thing to do, this is unhealthy,” he said. “People have a wide array of habits. For us to approach lifestyle and behavior in absolutist terms doesn’t always work.”
