Incentive Program To Motivate Medication Adherence
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Patients enrolled in HealthPrize programs demonstrate persistently high engagement rates and materially higher adherence rates, nearly 50% higher than baseline on average.
Digital health company HealthPrize Technologies is expanding an incentive program to motivate a medication adherence tool that offers points towards prizes in exchange for patient engagement. It is moving beyond pharmaceutical companies which have been the main client base since its platform launch in 2010 and now wants to expand its customer base with employers and payers.
As part of its plan to accomplish this, HealthPrize has announced its first institutional financing of $3 million led by private equity firm Mansa Capital. Mansa has a right to increase its investment by an additional $2 million through July 31, 2015. As part of the deal, Ruben King-Shaw Jr., Mansa Capital Managing Partner and CIO, will join the HealthPrize board of directors. Westbury Group LLC was HealthPrize’s exclusive financial advisor for the round.
One unique aspect of this program is the incentive-reward formula that HealthPrize uses. Patients receive co-pay cards through doctors and patients who act on reminders get points. They can score more for taking part in quizzes testing their knowledge of their disease. They get most of their points at refill. Pharmaceutical companies decide on the rewards which could include an Amazon or iTunes gift card.
“The healthcare industry has a strong focus now on digital health approaches, and increasingly, there’s a greater understanding of how incentives and gamification – particularly in combination with education – can influence behavior,” said Thomas Kottler, HealthPrize CEO.
According to the press statement, “The HealthPrize platform leverages a combination of behavioral economics concepts, gamification, education, and rewards to maximize motivational impact. Patients enrolled in HealthPrize programs demonstrate persistently high engagement rates and materially higher adherence rates, nearly 50 percent higher than baseline on average.”
“We are well poised for rapid growth at this juncture, having demonstrated phenomenal engagement and adherence rates in our first several programs. We are further encouraged by our favorable timing in the marketplace, as well as the growth in our customer portfolio, which now includes a number of top-20 global pharmaceutical companies,” Kottler said.
The financing will be used primarily to expand the HealthPrize team to meet the growing demand for its software and services and to pursue its international expansion and in its foray into the healthcare verticals of employers and payers.
“We have been interested in the medication adherence space for quite some time, and HealthPrize uniquely impressed us from the start with its innovative approach, solid results, and the team’s ability to navigate the complexities of its pharmaceutical clients. Mansa looks forward to facilitating this critical growth phase, especially given healthcare’s heightened interest in adherence and its role in improving outcomes and decreasing costs,” said King-Shaw, Jr.