08228
March 25, 2008

Doctor, doctor, give me the news

BOP health risk assessment shows most participants more at-risk than they think

by Jerry Van Marter
Presbyterian News Service

PHILADELPHIA — The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Board of Pensions (BOP) has announced the results of its first, online health risk assessment (HRA).

Through a partnership with the world-renowned Mayo Clinic and its comprehensive healthcare portal, EmbodyHealth, the Board conducted the health risk between Sept. 4 Nov. 30, 2007.

Ninety-five percent of survey takers said they believe their health is “good” or better. “The reality,” BOP director of welfare benefits design and funding Stew Beltz told the board’s Healthcare Committee March 7 here, “is that we’re not as healthy as we think.”

According to Mayo, only 4 percent of HRA takers rated “low risk.”

All active BOP plan members and their spouses were offered an incentive of a $25 gift card to complete the HRA on the EmbodyHealth site. More than 21 percent of the 28,500 eligible participants logged on, took the test and collected the card. The BOP’s goal was  20% participation.

At the close of the survey, each participant received a personalized report on all aspects of his/her health, which could be printed and shared with healthcare providers.

While all individual data is kept strictly confidential, an analysis of the consolidated results revealed:

• 70% of the participants perceived their health status as being very good or excellent, while 78% of the participants had 2 to 7 risk factors that placed them in the moderate to very high risk category;
• The top three risk factors were nutrition, emotional health, and weight;
• The most prevalent medical conditions were allergies, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and depression;

Sixty-one percent of the participants were over the age of 50, and the majority were women.

Combined with the use of other wellness programs such as the Mayo Clinic Tobacco Quitline and CIGNA Behavioral Health’s Strength and Resilience (a stress management program) and Healthy Steps to Weight Loss (a weight management program), the results of the HRA can help facilitate the process of healthy change for all BOP plan members and the greater Presbyterian community, said President and CEO Rob Maggs.

The BOP’s initial foray into incentive-based self-care offerings — Preventive Healthcare Services Benefit (aka “preventive incentive”), in which members and dependents are offered $100 cash to get an annual health screening — has “almost certainly saved lives,” Beltz said.

Preventive examinations have doubled from 23 percent to 46 percent of eligible members since its introduction three years ago.

During the three-year period mammograms increased from 45 percent to 58 percent of eligible women, colorectal screenings have jumped from 18 percent to 52 percent and cervical cancer screenings from 32 percent to 40 percent.

Such screenings, a key tool for early detection and successful treatment, have risen from  3,770 to 16,092. “That’s not good,” Beltz said, “but it's better, because more and more of our members are seeing and talking to their doctor.”