[Essay] Health incentives: the science and art of motivating healthy behaviors

Introduction

In order to motivate and encourage human resource or employees to have a healthy behaviour, the management or the employers are considering different approach and one of these is through incentive rewards. There are many studies which have been conducted to know how employees are being motivated through health incentives and how this affects healthy behaviour. This article review will focus on the research entitled “Health Incentives: The Science and Art of Motivating Healthy Behaviors” The article has been able to provide details of the key considerations and factors for employers who is trying to find a way to maximize the value of incentive rewards/ The article also discussed the incentive approaches, types of rewards, the amount of the rewards as well as the regulatory consideration and policies in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

In this study, the research found that the utilization of incentive rewards for healthy behavior is noted to double between year 2008 and 2011. In this regard, well designed incentives is the key to motivate dramatic changes in a significant number of people and those inappropriately designed incentives can encourage dishonest reporting or unhealthy behaviors or these may only encourage healthy behaviors among employees for as long as the reward last.

In this regard, , the employers based health funding system is reaching a breaking point in which some employers are now recognizing that their global competitive position will be affected unless they have sufficient approach and steps undertaken to curb escalating the costs of the health care

The selected research design

In order to achieve the goal of this paper, the researcher has been able to use appropriate approach. For this study, the research design used is qualitative approach (Mays & Pope, 2000). In this study, the qualitative data used provides details descriptions of the entire topic which is the health incentives which allowed the researcher to gain better understanding of the objective of the study (Creswell, 1994). It can be said that the article used qualitative research method since it will try to find and build theories that will explain the importance of health incentives and how it affects the behavior of the employees. Since the study aims on providing an overview of the key aspects for employers that seeks to maximize the value of incentive rewards, the researcher have been able to collect pertinent documents to discuss the incentive approaches, the types of rewards and its amount and the consideration of the regulations under different policies in the United States such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Through this approach qualitative elements which did not have standard measures has been analysed. Data from this study were gathered from the rich data base of different studies conducted like the Buck Consultant survey of 555 employers, and reviewed the article entitled Working Well: A Global Survey of Health Promotion and Workplace Wellness Strategies.

In this research design, the data collection approach includes the consideration of relevant literatures that provides discussion about the practical considerations for employers which want to use strategically incentives as a vital program approach for motivating their employees and engaging them to health promotions.

Herein, the researcher has been able to gather information from relevant studies and incorporate it qualitatively through the use of content analysis. Through the secondary documents, it can be said that the researcher have been able to achieve the goal and objective of this study. It is said that the qualitative research utilised in this article can be said to be as it is more open to adjustment and refinement of research ideas as an inquiry proceeds. Several researchers had stated that generally, qualitative research takes place within a natural setting. It is less likely for qualitative research to impose restriction on data collection. Furthermore, it is more focused on idiographic descriptions and emergent themes rather than on categorical frameworks and very specific hypothesis (Cassell & Symon, 1994).

Ethical considerations

In this research, it can be said that the author has been able to provide ethical considerations on the collected data and used these information to provide general conclusions about health incentives. Through this, the article considers a recent research study and focus on its objective to achieve the objective of this research. The author ethically discussed all the information gathered in a way that it did not overpower the result of this study.

Overall Critique

By reading and comprehending this research article, it can be said that the researcher has been able to utilise efficient and effective data analysis and presentation procedure to make sure that the reader will not be confused on the conducted study. The author has been able to analyse and presented the data as organized to avoid confusion among the readers of the study. In addition, the researcher has been able to present the research and discussion concisely. The researcher has been able to give relevant and significant information in the analysis of the data gathered and through this abstract, the reader has been given specific information that helps them in fully understanding the research or study.

Reference

Cassell, C., & Symon, G. (1994). Qualitative research in work contexts. In C. Cassell, & G. Symon (Eds.), Qualitative methods in organizational research (pp. 1-13). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Creswell, J.W. (1994) Research design. Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.

Hall B. (2008). Health incentives: the science and art of motivating healthy behaviors.
Benefits Quarterly 24(2):12-22

Mays, N. and Pope, C. (2000) Qualitative research in health care: Assessing quality in qualitative research. BMJ, 320, pp.50-52