Green Shield Canada is offering rewards to plan members who work on improving and maintaining their health.

Green Shield has launched a rewards program through its Change4Life web portal that will be available to all of its group plan members. The program is meant to encourage Canadian employees to take small, achievable steps towards better health in exchange for points. Those points can then be used to win a variety of rewards including gift cards from major retailers such as Sport Chek and Sobeys.

Employees are first asked to complete a health risk assessment. Based on their responses, they will receive a personalized report card and action plan designed to help them become healthier. As they follow this action plan, they will earn more points that can be used to win rewards. They could, for example, earn points by doing things like reading education materials and answering quiz questions, signing up for daily medication or appointment reminders, and tracking their intake of fruits and vegetables.

Green Shield says that chronic disease is one of the biggest health problems in Canada today, and points to research which shows that conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and cholesterol can improve significantly when patients improve their health behaviour.

"We have been spending much of our time on rethinking employee health benefit plans in light of the emerging health challenges of Canadians," says Peter Gove, Innovation Leader for Health Management at Green Shield Canada. "Our research indicates that our focus should be on engaging plan members in the effective management of their own health. Because the keys to changing behaviours include ease of access to resources and reinforcement of positive change, we know that Change4Life can make a significant contribution."