Press Release

Manasquan, N.J., USA, April 5, 2006 – As tools for stratifying likely candidates for care management and barometers of future healthcare costs, health risk assessments/appraisals (HRAs) are data gold mines for health plans and employers. Why then, do so many healthcare organizations still struggle to attain desired HRA completion rates?

Proven strategies for raising participation in HRA initiatives will be presented during Driving Participation and Results in Health Risk Assessments, a live April 12, 2006 audio conference sponsored by the Healthcare Intelligence Network (HIN). Darren Hodgdon, senior vice president of population health management at Healthways and Dr. Raj Lakhanpal, president and CEO of HealthAtoZ, will share winning tactics for boosting completion of HRAs to drive results and curb healthcare costs.

There’s still time for healthcare executives to register to hear the critical steps their organizations should take to boost the number of participants who complete health risk assessments. The HIN-sponsored audio conference, also available on CD-ROM or as an on-demand rebroadcast, is HIN’s response to its September 2005 online survey on the role of HRAs in the healthcare industry. The survey found that while nearly 75 percent of respondents—health plans, hospitals, employers and disease management companies—now ask or will soon ask their populations to complete HRAs as part of their overall health management strategy, many are struggling with less-than-optimal completion rates. For more information on the audio conference, please visit the HIN bookstore.

“Recognizing the valuable data HRAs produce, more employees and health plans are making HRAs a component of overall wellness efforts, offering incentives and other rewards for their completion,” notes HIN Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Melanie Matthews. “The key challenge for these organizations is boosting completion of HRAs, which can then be mined to track risk changes and health cost trends and pinpoint evolving employee health needs and interests.”

During this 90-minute audio conference, presenters will also provide details on:

• Driving participation rates in voluntary health risk assessments;
• Exploring the option of mandatory versus voluntary HRA completion;
• Using incentives to drive participation;
• Creating a corporate culture that supports HRAs;
• Marketing the HRA; and
• Benchmarking HRA results.

According to Matthews, the 90-minute audio conference is ideal for CEOs, medical directors, disease management directors, managers and coordinators, health plan executives, care management nurses, business development executives, strategic planning directors and others charged with raising HRA completion rates.

For those who miss the live conference, an on-demand rebroadcast can be accessed beginning April 14, 2006, and a CD-ROM recording with printed transcript will be available in late April. To register and obtain details on audio conference formats, please visit: the HIN bookstore.

About the Healthcare Intelligence Network---HIN is the premier advisory service for executives seeking high-quality strategic information on the business of healthcare. For more information, contact the Healthcare Intelligence Network, PO Box 1442, Wall Township, NJ 07719-1442, (888) 446-3530, fax (732) 292-3073, e-mail info@hin.com, or visit http://www.hin.com.

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Contact: Patricia Donovan