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Focus on Health Coaching
Large employers and health plans are using health coaching to keep people healthy by addressing chronic health conditions before they happen.
Health Management Insights talked to Seona Simmermaker, WebMD Health Services vice president of client health services, about health coaching and how it can help client organizations meet wellness best practices.
How does health coaching fit into a wellness program?
Health coaching is an effective way to proactively reduce health risk factors such as obesity or high blood pressure with individuals and populations as a whole. A recent study showed that keeping someone from migrating from low to high risk provides five times the savings as that of taking someone from high to low risk.1
However, we know that changing health-related behaviors and maintaining exceptional health is one of the most difficult tasks to accomplish. People's health willingness to change, privacy concerns, learning styles, and other barriers are unique.
Telephonic health coaching gives individuals of all risk levels a personalized and private health consultant who is familiar with their needs, risks, and desires to make change. This expert is in their corner and available to support, advise, and motivate people as they work through the barriers associated with maintaining good health habits.
Multiple studies have documented the effectiveness of health coaching in improving risk factors. One study2 showed nearly twice the reduction of targeted risks in coaching participants compared to non-participants.
One study showed nearly twice the reduction of targeted risks in coaching participants compared to non-participants.
What are some best practices in setting up a health coaching program?
Consider the enrollment method. If people don't participate, then it doesn't matter how good the coaching program is.
Most coaching vendors use a passive enrollment methodology. In these cases, eligible individuals are asked to initiate participation by contacting the health coaching provider if they're willing to participate in the program.
Years of experience have shown us that the best practice is actually the opposite approach.
Within our health risk assessment (HRA), we have respondents enter their phone number and preferred contact time. Then a health coach automatically reaches out to all eligible participants. We help them understand the value of taking control of their health. And we can jump-start the supportive action plan that will help them get themselves on the path to improved well-being.
This proactive outreach gives higher participation rates — typically more than two to three times as high — compared to a typical passive recruitment model.
Proactive enrollment typically gives more than 2 to 3 times higher participation rates than passive recruitment.
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