Evive Health Earns Prestigious Gold Aster Award for Its Work with the State of Nebraska

Evive Health has been recognized for excellence in healthcare marketing and communications by the Aster Awards, one of the largest and most respected national competitions of its kind. Selected from nearly 3,000 entries, Evive was honored with a “Gold” award for the direct mail program it created on behalf of the state of Nebraska to educate its employees on their cost-savings Wellness Health Plan options and other health and wellness decisions.

Evive Health is a leading innovator in the design of personalized data-driven healthcare tools that enable and empower consumers to make better healthcare decisions, ranging from plan selection to care options and opportunities. When the state of Nebraska needed to boost participation in its employee wellness plan, its health and wellness provider (HealthFitness) partnered with Evive to help tackle the challenge.

Together, the team developed a new approach that in just nine months boosted the state’s preventive care screenings by 19 percent. Based on these engagement efforts and their direct outcomes, the state of Nebraska has set a landmark example for others in the public sector to follow. The state of Nebraska was honored to receive the 2011 Gold Well Workplace by the Wellness Councils of America, in addition to the 2011 Innovations Award from The Council of State Governments.

To date, approximately 42 percent of Nebraska state employees receiving health insurance benefits have enrolled in a wellness program, with an additional 2,500 spouses now participating. In its two-year history, the Nebraska initiative has logged impressive outcomes, including quantifiable reductions in health risks and healthcare costs and a rise in employee commitment to invest in personal health.

“We applied an emerging notion in behavioral economics that suggest that people are more likely to act on a piece of information if they first must make an effort, however small, to discover it for themselves,” said Peter Saravis, CEO and co-founder of Evive. “With that dynamic in mind, we created a scratch-off direct mail piece that revealed, upon a quick uncovering, the actual dollar amount that individual would save by enrolling in their best PPO option. The savings amount fluctuated based on four coverage types, from single employee up to 4+ person family, so linking the right person with the relevant dollar amount was essential to our messaging.”

Saravis explains that this mailing was followed with a second mailer where the specific dollar amount fluttered out of the envelope upon opening, in the style of a faux monetary bill, that was set up to slip through the person’s fingers unless further action was taken. “The surrounding messaging underscored that remaining steps needed to be completed by their deadlines before the dollar savings could be realized,” said Saravis.

This potent notion of discovery was also used in a scratch-off postcard mailing that prompted recipients to talk with their doctor about switching from a current brand-name drug to its generic alternative. A curiosity-inducing blank speech bubble prompted recipients to scratch to reveal some office visit “small talk” that could save them big money. Unscratched, the bubble revealed the specific brand-to-generic opportunity based on the individual’s current pharmacy claims.

“We are honored to be recognized by the Aster Awards for our work with Nebraska and for helping to increase the health of their state employees,” said Saravis. “As America grapples with ever-rising healthcare costs and the toll that disease and chronic conditions take on our society, it is vitally important that people are provided the tools they need to become better, more engaged consumers as far as their health is concerned.”

Earlier this year Evive Health’s personal engagement program was recognized with an award of excellence at the 11^th Annual Patient Adherence Forum. In 2010, Evive was selected by the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center as one of the region’s most promising and fastest-growing new companies.

The Aster Awards is hosted by Marketing Healthcare Today magazine and Creative Images Inc. This elite program, which receives entries from across the United States as well as Canada and South America, each year recognizes outstanding healthcare professionals for excellence in advertising and marketing. All winners are posted on the Aster Awards website (www.AsterAwards.com) as well as published in Marketing Healthcare Today, a national healthcare marketing magazine.

About Evive Health

Founded in 2007, Evive Health is the leading innovator in designing personalized communication tools that motivate individuals to engage in health and wellness enhancement activities that improve their health, lower healthcare costs, and lead to a happier and healthier lifestyle. For more information, visit http://www.evivehealth.com or call 312-374-9150.