The 2013 BioIQ RFP Screening Guide & Template
Introduction
The Current State of Screening and Wellness
Seven in 10 employers provide wellness benefits, including flu shots, biometric screenings, and other wellness interventions. Despite a challenging economy, 60 percent of employers have increased their wellness budgets and implemented new wellness programs since 2008. The continued momentum is due in part to consistent reporting of $1 to $3 decreases in overall healthcare costs with each dollar spent on wellness.[1]
Evolution of Incentives
In the past year, the number of employers utilizing incentive-based wellness programs increased from 49 to 54 percent, and incentive amounts continue to rise. In addition, recent surveys have shown that over 50 percent of employers offering incentives plan to expand these offerings to spouses and dependents. As utilization of incentives increase, employers are increasingly tying incentives and rewards to specific health outcomes. Surveys indicate that 5 to 10 percent of incentive programs are based on meeting specific medical-base standards.[2]
Impact on Screening
As wellness becomes more pervasive and incentives become increasingly linked to health outcomes, health screening has become the foundation upon which progress (and Return-On-Investment) can be based and measured. In 2012, over 60 percent of wellness programs included biometric screening.[3] However, it is important to note that the rapid evolution of wellness has placed new demands on screening, and new capabilities are needed to optimize your wellness program and achieve increasingly demanding wellness goals.
The 2013 RFP Screening Guide has been updated to help you quickly understand which screening options hold up to new market trends, vet vendor quality and capabilities, and optimize your investments in wellness.
We have produced this guide in a convenient format that enables you to cut, paste, and edit this document to make it your own.
After reading this guide, you and your company will be armed with valuable information to make the right choices to optimize your Screening and Wellness Program.
-The BioIQ Team
Which Screening Methods Are Right For You?
With engagement being the number one challenge to producing return-on-investment (ROI), employers are providing their populations with a variety of options to lower barriers to participation and improve employee satisfaction. Not all screening methods are appropriate for every population. However, if properly integrated, a combination of available screening methods will make your screening and wellness program more effective. A properly designed screening program will also provide equal, convenient access to all members of a population.
Here are some factors to weigh when considering which options best support your screening and wellness goals:
Table of Contents
1. Initial Quality
This section includes key questions that you can use to qualify and/or short-list a screening vendor, including: compliance with laws and regulations, IT control and response time, personnel training, and accountability.
2. General Screening Program Options
This section covers questions that reveal information about screening options (lab test options), delivery models, and screening program add-on’s (health risk assessments, health coaching, etc.).
3. Outcomes / Results-Based Wellness
This section includes questions that reveal information about outcomes-based program capabilities and integration with wellness.
4. Group Administrator Experience
This section includes questions that reveal information about the implementation process, ongoing account management/support, and account management reporting.
5. Participant Experience
This section covers questions that reveal information about customer service, account/information access, and individual reporting.
6. Data Management Services
This section includes questions that reveal information about aggregate reports, 3rd party integration, and options for hand-off to other wellness interventions.
7. Costs
This section includes questions about costs for the products and services described throughout. **Highlighted items throughout indicate areas where hidden fees and indirect costs may exist.**
** Pay particular attention to Hidden Fees and Indirect Costs! Highlighted items throughout indicate areas where hidden fees and indirect costs (i.e. loss in productivity, wasted man-hours, overuse of incentives, etc.) may exist.**
1. Initial Quality
This section includes key questions that you can use to qualify a screening vendor, including: compliance with laws and regulations, IT control and response time, personnel training and accountability.
References
1. List three current clients, covering all screening methods offered, whom we may contact for reference purposes.
Compliance
1. Have you had a HIPAA violation or breach in the past three years?
2. Have you or any of your affiliated companies, labs, or associates received an FDA warning letter in the past 3 years?
IT Control (Privacy and Security) and Response Time
1. Is any part of your IT infrastructure hosted offshore?
2. Has (presently or in the past) any part of your IT development been outsourced to an overseas firm?
Personnel
1. If you conduct on-site screening events, is your entire staff W-2 employees or 1099 consultants?
2. Do you have any customer support representatives that are not located within the United States?
2. General Screening Program Options
This section includes questions that reveal information about screening options (lab test options), delivery models, and screening program add-on’s (health risk assessments, health coaching, etc.)
Screening Options
1. What screening options can you offer to eligible participants (i.e. on-site events, at-home screening, physician results forms, and/or local lab visits, etc.)?
a. For each screening option, list how many years and months you have included this as part of your product offering.
b. For each screening option, list any minimum participation requirements.
2. For each screening method, explain your national coverage limitations.
Flu Shot Options
1. Do you offer flu shots?
2. Describe how appointments are scheduled and how the flu shot program is managed.
3. Can a participant use the same scheduler for flu shots and screening?
Delivery Models
1. List the options you provide for a participant to register for a screening program.
2. Can a single screening program offer a combination of registration options (i.e. online, phone, paper, etc.)?
3. Can a single screening program offer a combination of options for result delivery to participants (i.e. online, paper, other)?
4. Can you provide a single gateway for all eligible participants to register for a screening program (regardless of the option of screening that they desire to utilize)?
5. What options do you provide for participants that don’t have Internet access?
Add-on Services
1. Can you provide a Health Risk Assessment?
2. Do you populate a participant’s biometric data from a screening program into their Health Risk Assessment once they have completed their screening?
3. Can you provide Health Coaching Services?
a. At the moment a participant receives the results from their screening (the teachable moment), is a participant able to contact a Health Coach? Does this apply to all potential screening methods?
4. Do you provide specific resources to connect participants with their personal physician?
a. If yes, is this available for all options of screening (please attach a copy)?
5. What other wellness options/interventions can you make available?
Miscellaneous
1. Can your website be customized with specifics about our company or program?
a. If yes, what can be customized?
3. Outcomes / Results-based Wellness
This section includes questions that reveal information about outcomes-based program capabilities and integration with wellness.
Rewards / Point System
1. Do you have a point system?
2. How is your point system configured to handle outcome-based wellness programs?
3. How do you handle rewards distribution?
User Interface and Reporting
1. How do you communicate points, rewards, and cut-offs to participants?
2. Do you provide an interface for participants to understand the points system?
3. Do you provide an interface for participants to track their points and rewards?
4. How do you report points and rewards on the population level to the employer?
Appeals Process
1. Do you have a formal appeals process? If so, describe your appeals process (i.e. How do participants make an appeal? How do you qualify, approve, and/or deny appeals?).
2. Does your points system offer alternatives when the preferred screening method is not possible and/or not chosen by the participant?
Default Structure
1. Have you implemented an outcomes-based point or rewards system for employer clients?
2. Describe the structures implemented and/or your recommended point / rewards structure for outcomes-based wellness programs.
4. Group Administrator Experience
This section includes questions that reveal information about the implementation process, ongoing account management/support, and account management reporting.
Program Implementation
1. Describe the standard implementation process for a screening program.
2. Do you have an online implementation dashboard to simplify program set-up and increase employer visibility and control?
Account Manager Information
1. Do you have one designated point of contact for each employer group?
2. Do you provide free consultation on program set-up, management, wrap-up, and wellness program design?
3. Please list the bio of the point of contact(s).
Ongoing Program Reporting
1. Do you have an account dashboard that enables the administration team to login to view real-time statistics of the program and the status of individual participants?
2. Indicate the different types of screening program information you can provide for the administration team, and the frequency at which they can be accessed / obtained.
a. Aggregate participation report:
b. Participant-level participation report:
c. Key metrics
3. Please provide an example of what each of these reports looks like (please label appropriately and attach to the end of the RFP).
4. Can you provide a monthly service report of all program information related to: customer support, website uptime, server response time? What other information can be included?
5. Participant Experience
This section includes questions that reveal information about customer service, account/information access, and individual reporting.
Participant Satisfaction
1. How do you measure participant satisfaction?
2. Explain your participant satisfaction rankings.
Participant Registration and Result Reporting
1. Can a participant access any and all screening options available to them at a central source (web-page or phone number)?
2. What type of reporting does a participant receive (please attach a copy to this RFP)?
3. Can participants access results from previous years’ screening programs? If yes, how?
Third Party Wellness Connections
1. Can a participant be connected with a wellness solution based upon their screening results?
a. How are they connected (what is the process to access these services)?
b. Does it require a separate sign-up process?
c. Please provide three examples of how this is currently done.
Customer Support
3. What types of customer support are available for participants?
4. What are the hours that customer service is available?
5. What are the three most common customer service inquiries and what steps have you taken to minimize these?
6. Data Management Services
This section includes questions that reveal information about aggregate reports, 3rd party integration, and options for hand-off to other wellness interventions.
Data Stewardship / Accuracy
1. How do you ensure accurate, unique accounting of participant data throughout a program in order to ensure 100% matching upon integration with a third party?
Eligibility Management
1. How do you handle eligibility management?
Third Party Integration
1. Describe your Single-Sign-On capabilities (SSO), if any.
a. How long does it typically take to complete SSO integration?
b. List your SSO implementations over the past 12 months (how many? with who?).
c. Have you completed SSO with: Wellness Vendors? Health Plans? Employer Portals?
2. Which health plans and third-party wellness companies have you integrated with?
3. Can you collect a custom ID number (such as an Employee ID Number or Health Plan Member ID Number) from all participants?
4. Do you have a set format and process for transferring data to a third party vendor or can you work with custom formats for various vendors?
5. Is there a set frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly) for how often updated data can be transferred?
Employer Aggregate Report
1. Please attach a copy of your aggregate report, if available.
2. Can you combine the data collected from various methods of screening (at-home screening, onsite screening, lab visits, physician results forms, etc.) into one aggregate report?
3. Can you provide aggregated data across multiple years of screening to show year-over-year trends?
4. Does your aggregate report include other analytics / metrics such as claims data, pharmacy data, or population HR data? If so, provide an example.
7. Costs
This section includes questions about costs for the products and services described throughout.
**Highlighted items above indicate areas where hidden fees & indirect costs may exist.**
Costs - General
1. List the cost of each biometric that you can measure.
a. Include cost of each bundle.
b. Include cost difference with each screening option (on-site, at-home, lab visit, physician results form, etc.).
2. List minimum participation / fee for each screening method.
3. List the cost off all “add-on” options (Health Risk Assessment, Health Coaching, etc.).
4. List the cost of flu shots and any additional fees for online scheduling.
Costs – Outcome / Result-based Wellness
5. List all costs for your rewards / incentives / outcomes-based programs.
Costs – Group Administrator Experience
6. List all “one time” set up costs.
7. List all administration and hourly account support costs.
8. List all the costs of program branding / customization.
9. List all the costs of website customization.