The Association Between Incentive Designs and Health Assessment or Biometric Screening Completion

To identify statistically significant predictors for completing a Personal Health Assessment (PHA) or biometric screening from attributes of incentive designs.

A cross-sectional study was conducted that included 426,694 members from 56 employer groups who required a PHA or screening as part of their incentive during 2016.

Incentive designs that combine high-value with immediate disbursement can relatively increase employee PHA participation by as much as 66% over plans with low-value and delayed disbursement (56.7% vs 34.1%, P < 0.001). Surcharge component was a significant predictor of PHA completion (P < 0.001); similar predictors were found for screening completion.

This study identified several significant predictors of PHA or screening completion, including: monetary value, time to disbursement, disbursement method, and frequency. Our findings are consistent with prior research in human behavior responses to positive reinforcement.