BTE: So as a consumer, how will I be able to join your program when it is up and running? Will I be able to join if my insurer/employer is not a United Preference partner?  

Mark Hall: We are a B2B company so it would be through either your employer or your health plan. You may be involved in a health and wellness plan with your employer, whether it be for weight loss or smoking cessation for instance. You may be a member of Weight Watchers and we could have a program through them. So consumers will engage us through organizations with whom they are already affiliated.

BTE: So how does United Preference get paid?

Mark Hall: Under the incentive model, we get paid per load, or each time money is added to a card. So lets say there is $100 that can be used by that member or employee for one year, and you might hit three or four markers within the year, we might take a small percentage per load. In the administered benefits, you may be in a smoking cessation program and instead of going to the doctor each month to get prescriptions you might have $30 put on your card every month that could be used to pay for your Nicotine patch at Walgreens and a series of supplements.

So that would be an administered benefit that you have access to every month, $30 you either use or it comes off the card and you get an additional $30 next month, and we would get paid $1 per member per month. The key for us is to be able to demonstrate the return on investment. We can track spending and determine how often members are using their cards and provide our clients analytical data on this which can be very valuable for payers and employers to be able to see how often the incentives are actually being used and how often they are actually motivating positive behavior.

BTE: How do you foresee yourselves working with a group like Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig? Would users earn rewards based on meeting certain weight loss goals?

Mark Hall: I think we would be aligned very well with a Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig because we could offer a branded card and as people meet their milestones they would get rewarded with $50 worth of Jenny Craig products, or at some point even doing Jenny Craig approved items, even at places such as fast food restaurants which would not necessarily be considered a weight loss place. If people had an incentive to get the healthiest items on the menu it wouldn’t be such a bad thing for them to eat at fast food restaurants and they would notice that by eating the grilled chicken salad instead of the Big Mac that they feel better and less tired.

So the next time they go to McDonald’s they will think, ‘I felt really great last time after I had the grilled chicken salad, I think I will have that again’. Also, when you talk about offering a card product through a Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers you are able to extend that brand into the market and people will have $20-30 that they can only spend on Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig items at retailers or your local supermarket where those products are sold. So you are creating alignment between brands that might not be immediately apparent.