Part of the "What I Learned Reading CDHC Solutions" series: Michael Dermer, President of IncentOne, has written an impressive
article on what kind of Return On Investment (ROI) employers can expect from a health management incentive programs. Dermer says the combination of immediate, intermediate and long-term methods is essential to maximizing any incentive plan's effectiveness. Dermer gives great examples for all three, from switching to generic instead of brand name drugs, to implementing smoking cessetion programs, ROI can be achieved through careful planning and implementation on all three time tables. I believe it is important that employers differentiate between the three different time tables and which methods apply to which length of time. If certain methods that promise immediate ROI are not evaluated until much later, when the long term methods are looked at, employers may not see the progress they are making, and thus, not see the value in what they are doing.