Motivating New Yorkers to Get Healthy
MetroPlus Health Plan, one of the New York area’s largest health insurers, launched a Member Rewards Program this past January to empower its members with health, wellness, and preventative activities. MetroPlus Chief Operating Officer Seth Diamond explains, “We wanted to give our members an incentive to be healthy and to learn about habits that would help make and keep them healthy”. The Member Rewards program offers a host of incentives for members to earn and redeem points by taking part in health-oriented activities such as completing exercise challenges, attending yearly check-ups, and taking their children to the dentist.
The rewards that MetroPlus offers its point-earning members run the gamut from NCAA basketballs to high-quality car seats, with many prizes in between. Diamond says, “We wanted to find something that would get people excited about getting healthy.” Diamond explains that similar rewards programs carried out in other jurisdictions have been successful at increasing members’ health and reducing medical costs over time. He is hopeful that the MetroPlus program will inspire similar results and so far, the program has been received enthusiastically. Members began redeeming points this May.
Preventative-oriented measures are merely one way that MetroPlus, the plan of choice for over 500,000 New Yorkers, has come to serve its diverse base of customers. Founded in New York City in Manhattan over 30 years ago, the company now serves residents of all five boroughs and takes pride in supporting members of various ages, backgrounds, and income-levels. Many MetroPlus employees come from the communities the plan serves, and staff is fluent in over 40 languages. “One of our unique strengths,” says Diamond, “is that, as New Yorkers ourselves, we feel we are best able to understand our members’ lives and needs.”
To provide low-income members with high-quality health care and social services, MetroPlus offers low- and even no-cost health care plans. Diamond explains, “We offer insurance for individuals at all income levels and have plans that can provide specialized services to individuals who need substantial support and assistance.”
To serve its member base across New York City, MetroPlus offers an incredibly wide span of insurance plan options including Medicaid Managed Care, Child Health Plus, several Medicare Plans, and a Medicaid Special Needs Plan (SNP) for people with HIV and their families, a LongTerm Managed Care Plan, MetroPlus Gold, a plan exclusively for New York City employees, FIDA and HARP plans, and nearly six dozen NY State of Health Marketplace products, including the new Essential Plans – the most affordable on the NY State of Health Marketplace.
MetroPlus also prides itself on having strong relationships with its diverse range of providers. Diamond affirms that MetroPlus members can choose between “thousands of doctors and hospitals across the five boroughs in order to select the provider that makes sense for them and their family”.
Community engagement is another vital aspect of health care for MetroPlus. Throughout the year, the plan hosts or participates in hundreds of events, together with business & community partners, in order to engage New Yorkers in social, community, and health-related activities. Upcoming this summer are the Brooklyn Gay Pride Festival on June 10th, Wellness
Wednesdays in Brooklyn, Casa Maria Diabetes Groups in the Bronx, and many more events that can be found on their online Community Events calendar at www.metroplus.org.
Indeed, guided by its inclusive and forward-thinking approach to health and wellness, MetroPlus Health Plan continually finds a way to serve any New Yorker looking for affordable, quality health care.