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Keys to achieving optimal desired and sustained behavior change for disease management and wellness programs.

Article Excerpt
What is it that drives behavior change? Is there a proven formula that works for all organizations, or is it a trial and error process that varies from employer to employer?

The answer, perhaps, is both. While each organization is different and unique and requires its own distinct approach to behavior change, there are proven steps that can be taken to improve the likelihood of behavioral change.

First, there must be an infrastructure in place to achieve the main goals of wellness and disease management programs. Those goals include:

* Reaching the majority of the population identified as needing intervention;

* Migrating participants from high risk to moderate risk, high risk to low risk, and moderate risk to low risk or maintaining low risk or healthy risk status;

* Sustaining desired behavior change for optimal health status for the individual participants; and

* Documenting improvement in population health status and productivity and reduction in trend.

To support these goals the following items are needed:

* A well-designed and supported plan that results in a well-designed program and assesses the needs of the target population;

* Incentives that ensure the hard-to-get individuals participate in the health risk assessment process;

* Claims analysis that can identify individuals for intervention who may not have participated in the health risk assessment and biometric screening;

* A communication campaign designed to get the word out and effectively reach the target population. Ensure your promotion campaign is well funded in order to get the word out. If the target population does not know about the program benefits or incentives, then all planning is for naught. Stress that the program is provided at no charge to the participants and is confidential. Build trust. Use the same techniques for changing behavior in your interventions to promote the programs. Convince them they should participate and give them confidence in the program--emphasize that it will benefit them if they participate;

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