‘Weigh and Win’: Coloradans Offered Cash Incentive for Losing Weight
- Posted on December 28, 2011 at 7:10am by
Liz Klimas
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DENVER (The Blaze/AP) — For those who need more of an incentive other than health benefits and a better physique to lose weight and keep it off, the insurance company Kaiser Permanente Colorado is enticing Coloradoans with a little something that resonates with everyone: money.
Companies have been making similar offers to their employees for years as a way to reduce obesity in the workplace and lower health care costs.
But Kaiser is taking it one step further and making the offer to any adult in Colorado through its Weigh and Win program. It’s one of the first programs in the nation to make such an offer to all adults.
Watch the Associated Press report:
Participants in the “Weigh and Win” program earn anywhere from $15 to $150 every three months to lose weight and keep it off.
Twelve kiosks with scales and a video camera to record progress are located in medical facilities, recreation centers, libraries and even a furniture store throughout the state.
The insurer is spending $500,000 to help jump start the program, which it hopes will eventually be funded by the cities and other health care groups that it’s working with.
Kaiser hopes to expand Weigh and Win by adding 10 kiosks next year as part of its community outreach programs.
“Weight loss is as effective as mammograms, or colon cancer screenings or blood pressure control when you speak about the amount of dollars you spend for the life years you gain from the program,” said Dr. Eric France, who’s in charge of developing the program at the insurer.
“And from the medical perspective, losing about 5 percent body weight is considered valuable and helpful,” said France, Kaiser’s chief of population care and prevention services.
According to the program website, more than 9,000 Coloradans have signed up since the program began in April and shed nearly 15,500 pounds so far. The average weight loss has been about 12 pounds.
Tanya Amaro, a pediatrics nurse practitioner at Denver Health Medical Center, checks in every week at the kiosk in the hospital’s cafeteria. She began her quest to lose weight last November, losing about 27 pounds on her own, and found that she couldn’t lose any more. She has lost an additional 37 pounds through the program, earning her $75 since May.
“It’s pretty cool,” she said.
She found the grocery store shopping lists; recipes for low-fat, healthy meals; and a workout regime from a personal trainer assigned to her through the program helpful in breaking through the plateau she had reached.
“Not just that I need to walk or I need to run. I knew that stuff, you know, that’s commonsense stuff,” she said. “It actually tells you how to do it, when to do it. You get text messages on your phone.”
France said it’s difficult to put a dollar amount on the benefits the program may bring.
“It’s not really a medical solution to obesity problems, the obesity epidemic,” France said. “It has to be a community solution. It’s about access to good food, it’s access to places to exercise, places to ride your bicycle, use transit, policies at school, policies at work and opportunities to have supportive programs to help you lose weight.”
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jambo
Posted on December 30, 2011 at 2:37amMaybe I should sign up…i’m pregnant and then come June, i’ll do my weigh in with baby inside then a couple weeks later with baby out. I should make a cool $100 bucks.
Report Post »Windsong
Posted on December 30, 2011 at 12:43amCan someone explain why we are constantly asked to provide ‘food stamps’ and other monies for all the starving families, only to be told that most Americans are overweight?
Report Post »And, the ‘democrats’ wonder why they’ve lost any and all credibility.
BuggiOlleo
Posted on December 29, 2011 at 8:44amIf obesity were really a problem..my 5′8″ 300# papa would not have lived to be 85..he did suffer late onset diabetes, amongst other ailment, but, what is health insurance if you cannot use it..
Report Post ».Dem-O-bama-Care would not have covered miner , if any, expense. His later years would have been short and not so sweet. To Deny the sad reality of U.S. health care instead of private is a mistake..As long as a private insurer donates cash on behalf of saving cash in the future, good luck- it may catch on..
Though eating chemically altered food and non preservative bark for breakfast doesn’t sound too enticing..
Give a slab of bacon and my egg Sunnyside UP..I may die quick, but I will enjoy every last bite…
geo01
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 10:27am.
Report Post »You might as well call this A TEST RUN for our new GOVERNMENT MANDATED HEALTHCARE. They will OWN THE INSURANCE COMPANIES Policies and Procedures. This is a test . . .
.
First THEY WILL BUY THE PEOPLE INTO THE “PROGRAM” of weight loss. THEN . . .
.
IT WILL BE FORCED UPON US. It is in the OBAMACARE law. They just have to implement it.
.
Sieg Heil!!!
.
PIL
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 10:19amSo if someone becomes bulimic and ruins his esophagus by throwing up after every meal, will Kaiser pay as well? What about Cyrstal meth and crack users? I hear illegal drugs are great to lose weight, does Kaiser support them? Or how about those teenage girls that starve themselves?
Wouldn’t it be better if we stopped promoting COLLECTIVE health and left health matters between a patient and his doctor? Besides, obesity is not an epidemic, you can’t catch obesity from having sex or from sitting next to a fat person. This whole war against obesity is nothing but a scam designed by the $65 billion diet and fitness industry to increase their bottom line. Insurance agencies have bought into it not because of medical facts, but because it’s easier to stereotype entire categories on people with the purpose of setting up insurance rates.
Besides, I don’t see fat people dying right away, look at Michael Moore! The guy‘s the size of a truck and he’s still kicking. In the end, it’s a lifestyle choice just like interracial dating, getting a tattoo, wearing body piercings, being a wigger, and lots of different things we may or may not like.
So maybe Kaiser should mind its own business and stop promoting weight loss!
Report Post »http://libertarians4freedom.blogspot.com/
Stoic one
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 10:33amWhat I see here is a private group(insurance company) offering a VOLUNTARY “free” program. That beats the he!! out of a mandatory government program.
Report Post »Oh – did I mention free?
metalurgy
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 9:14pmIt’s not going to be free. Did you miss the part about government footing the bill if it’s successful?
That’s another handout. More welfare, YIPPEE EBT!!!!
SWIPE, SWIPE, SWIPE…
Report Post »Pro-Palin
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 9:19amhow lite will you be when u have no food when the economy falls apart. Colorado use to be a great state now nothing but illegals and liberals.
Report Post »PROAMERICAN
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 3:50pmHey, I’m still here in Colorado! There is at least one conservative.
Report Post »jambo
Posted on December 30, 2011 at 2:32amYeah, but the liberals and nut jobs outnumber any conservatives left.
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 9:05amI’m sure their actuaries will keep an eye on the ROI. Insurance companies, perhaps more than any other company, run everything by the numbers. (MAYBE casinos tie with them).
Personally, I don’t think it will work once the “new” is worn off of the program.
Report Post »TRONINTHEMORNING
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 8:58amYep, they’ll gain it back; self-respect and the desire to better one’s body is the true reward. It will fail.
Report Post »kcares
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 9:03amIt will fail, they will just put the weight back on. It is like paying kids to make good grades.
Report Post »fiddlefaddle
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 10:20amIf they gain the weight back, they should have to reimburse double the amount they received for losing the weight.
Report Post »Edward C
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 8:21amThis is stupid. Is kaiser going to reward those people that took care of themselves and didn’t get fat? It’s rediculous. They should just be able to charge more for people that do things to themselves that are considered unhealthy.
Report Post »str8blues
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 8:56amyeah because Punishment is always better than Positive Reinforcement. Sure………Sure.
Report Post »Jomil48
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 7:35amAs long as it’s voluntary and tax payers are not footing the bill, then let them alone. If tax payers have to pay for it then scrap it, quick!
Report Post »Shupp
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 8:37amWhy don’t they go out of their way to pay the people who were responsible in their health. Why don’t they pay the healthy people, instead of enabling the people who were once again irriesponsible and made bad decisions. This seems a lot like an Obama liberal program bent on rewarding bad behavior and bad decisions. People should be rewarded for making the right choices in the first place instead of having the people who made the wrong decisions in life be rewarded. WTF is this country coming to again.
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 7:27am.
Report Post »They did this where the wife works. And yes FAT FOLKS will loose weight for money. They all but 2, gained it all back plus some. But hey this is Texas; they grow some Big Ole Heifers down here. I saw one the other day had a small orb circling her……….