CAFII Holds Webinar on 31 January, 2022 with Insurance Experts on Incentivization Programs
On 31 January, 2022, CAFII held a webinar on “The Ins and Outs of Life Insurers’ Health and Wellness Incentivization Programs.” Three expert insurance panelists participated:
- Patti Annable, Assistant Vice-President, Marketing Communications, Lumino Health, Sun Life;
- Lisa Heath, CEO, MediResource Inc, business partner to Canada Life’s Health Connected; and
- Paul Savage, Head of Product and Pricing, including for Vitality, Manulife.
The session covered a wide range of topics and the panelists were engaged in the discussion. Patti Annable said that Lumino Health at Sun Life is about connecting customers with their needs. Lisa Health spoke about Health Connected, which Canada Life participates in, with the intention to contributing the well-being of employees and connecting employees to the services that they need. Paul Savage said that Vitality is a program that tries to use incentives to promote healthy choices.
Panelists gave examples of incentives to promote healthy behaviour, like providing rewards for getting a COVID-19 vaccine. The panelists also noted that many people who have access to these programs are not aware of them, and increasing awareness is a key objective. On this issue, Lisa Heath stated:
Our experience is that communication actually matters the very most. It could be because our focus is the group benefit market so we’re dealing with plan sponsors, but what’s most important if you want engagement is to tell people, your employees, very specifically what you’re offering to them in terms of health and wellness.
It’s more important, from our experience, than gamification because if people just don’t even know that the tool is available, and you don’t make any effort to tell them that these benefits are available, they’re not going to use them.
On the subject of wearables, Lisa Heath said that they had potential but that there was a need for evidence that they actually can influence behaviour, it needed to be kept in mind that not everyone has access to them, and caution needed to be shown around users being comfortable with sharing the data with third parties like their insurer.
On the latter issue, Patti Annable said that the information that was collected was often used in the aggregate, and that protection of personal privacy was essential. Lisa Heath said that regulatory changes would occur and that industry would have to adjust to that, and in fact proper regulation should be welcomed. Paul Savage said that trust is central to the collection of health data and that privacy is absolutely paramount.
Poll questions found that roughly half of attendees were in incentivization programs, which panel members felt sounded roughly correct. As well, 68% of attendees said gamification (like rewards, points, games) would increase their participation in incentivization programs, although panelists said that the demographic that found gamification most appealing was younger people.
The session included good representation from regulators across the country, with the following policy-makers and regulators registered for the webinar:
- Quebec’s Autorité des marchés financiers, or AMF;
- The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario, or FSRA;
- The Ontario Ministry of Finance;
- The Government of Alberta ;
- BC Financial Services Authority;
- The Insurance Council of BC;
- Consumer and Financial Services Commission of New Brunswick;
- The Insurance Councils of Saskatchewan.
Panelist Lisa Heath posted a LinkedIn thread on the Webinar:
Lisa Heath LinkedIn Posting on CAFII Webinar on Incentivization Programs
