Rising costs for medical treatment and the current  dismal economic forecasts have companies searching for ways to control benefit spending. Employers,  brokers and advisors are seeking innovative ways to provide affordable, quality health care programs. Fortunately, there are solutions. Primarily, the  focus is on population health management and real-time medical risk assessment in an effort to detect chronic disease states and prevent them from escalating into high-dollar catastrophic care expenses.

Proactive cost-containment solutions are appearing everywhere and becoming a staple in most benefit plan offerings. These high-dollar claim deterrence tactics appear as stand-alone wellness programs, integrated health risk assessment surveys, early detection screening, lifestyle coaching services, and carve-out chronic condition management programs.

To help ensure participation, employers are incentivising people in a variety of ways. Some are offering the opportunity to lower health benefit out-of-pocket expense through earned reductions in contributions as well as reduced deductibles and co-payments. To entice greater participation, many companies are using gift cards as rewards when employees complete health risk assessment surveys.