Assessing the Impact of myHealth Rewards New Hire Enrollment Emails

NCT ID: NCT04047342

Last Updated: 2021-01-07

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Total Enrollment: 824 participants
• Study Classification: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2019-07-16
• Study Completion Date: 2020-07-01

Brief Summary

The purpose of the study is to evaluate, prospectively, the potential impact, on myHealth Rewards wellness program enrollment prior to the 2019 November submission deadline, of sending different messages via email to Geisinger Health Plan (GHP) members who have just been hired.

Detailed Description

The myHealth Rewards wellness program managed by GHP rewards those GHP members who carry their insurance through employment at Geisinger with reduced health insurance premiums over the course of the following year, if members register for the program and have their health measures on file by the enrollment deadline and are then able to meet their health goals by the respective due date. In spite of the potential savings to health plan members and the wellness program's potential to motivate engagement in healthy activities (with consequent improvement in health outcomes), about 23% of eligible existing GHP members did not enroll during the primary 2019 enrollment period, even after receiving promotional email communications and reminders. Therefore, the current study was developed to test whether a revised version of a standard welcome email is more effective than the standard email in increasing myHealth Rewards login and enrollment rates. The standard welcome email is what would typically be sent by GHP to encourage enrollment among new hires; it mentions the benefits of enrollment (maintaining good health and saving money on insurance premiums), the average premium savings, the ease of the registration process, and the deadline for registering and having health measures on file, plus it provides registration steps and hyperlinks for registering and finding free health screenings where health measures can be collected and registered at one convenient time and location. The loss frame email recommends that GHP members not "throw away" a precise monetary amount in savings by not participating and that they can therefore avoid missing out on substantial gains (i.e., savings) by taking action. It is hypothesized that, on average, the loss frame email will increase enrollment compared with the standard email, among this population of new hires for whom this is only the second time that they have been informed about myHealth Rewards. Findings will help inform how best to increase enrollment in a wellness program among health plan members who are new to the system.

Conditions

Health Promotion; Wellness Programs

Study Design

• Observational Model Type: CASE_CONTROL
• Study Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE

Study Groups

Standard welcome email

The standard welcome email mentions the benefits of enrollment (maintaining good health and saving money on insurance premiums), the average premium savings, the ease of the registration process, and the deadline for registering and having health measures on file, plus it provides registration steps and hyperlinks for registering and finding free health screenings where health measures can be collected and registered at one convenient time and location.

Welcome email

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Email

Loss frame email

The loss frame email recommends that GHP members not "throw away" a precise dollar amount in savings (over $2,000) by not participating and that they can therefore avoid missing out on substantial gains (i.e., savings) by taking action.

This intervention frames the status quo as a state from which recipients, via inaction, are slated to forfeit a sizable and precise monetary amount to which they should otherwise feel entitled (via loss aversion and the endowment effect). People tend to be risk-seeking in the domain of losses; therefore, this intervention is hypothesized to increase enrollment in the hope of achieving zero loss by meeting program goals, as opposed to a sure loss via inaction.

Welcome email

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Email

Loss frame

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Email

Interventions

Welcome email

Email

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Loss frame

Email

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Other Intervention Names

Endowment effect

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Any Geisinger new hire, regardless of benefits status, who started on or after July 1, 2019 and before November 30, 2019

Exclusion Criteria

• Existing Geisinger employees hired prior to July 1, 2019
• New hires who do not have an email address on file

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Geisinger Clinic

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Amir Goren, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Geisinger Clinic

Locations

Geisinger

Danville, Pennsylvania, United States

Countries

United States

Provided Documents

Document Type: Study Protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Other Identifiers

2019-0586

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id