Press Release

Manasquan, N.J., USA, March 21, 2006 – Health risk assessments/appraisals (HRAs) are becoming increasingly popular tools for employers and health plans to identify individuals at high risk for chronic health conditions. These tools educate participants about potential lifestyle risk factors, with the dual potential of maximizing outcomes and trimming healthcare costs. The key challenge in an effective HRA program is getting participants to complete the HRA, but despite proven returns on HRA investment, companies are reluctant to mandate this exercise.

Driving Participation and Results in Health Risk Assessments, an April 12, 2006 audio conference, will examine the critical steps every organization should take to boost the number of participants who complete health risk assessments. Sponsored by the Healthcare Intelligence Network (HIN), the live interactive audio conference will feature presentations by Darren Hodgdon, senior vice president of population health management at Healthways and Dr. Raj Lakhanpal, president and CEO of HealthAtoZ, who will provide inside details on how to increase participation in HRAs to drive results with these predictor tools. For more information, 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, CEOs, medical directors, disease management directors, managers and coordinators, health plan executives, care management nurses, business development executives and strategic planning directors will glean strategies for boosting HRA completion from the April 12, 2006 audio conference. The 90-minute format of the audio conference allocates 30 minutes for speakers to respond to participants’ questions. 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