The Osgood File: Paying People to Lose Weight

Transcript— May 5, 2011 - to hear in its entirety click here

The Osgood File. Sponsored in part by Auto Owners Insurance, the No Problem People. Visit AutoOwners.Com. This is Charles Osgood.  

How can you get people to do what they know they ought to do - eat right and exercise and lose weight?

A program called Weigh and Win in metropolitan Denver is now going to be open to all Coloradans 18 and older, trying a new approach the old-fashioned way: pay them to do it.

Actually, not to try, but to succeed. The higher the percentage of your body weight you lose, the bigger the debit card you're given. 

SOT - Todd McGuire, co-founder of incentaHealth "Every 90 days, they come back and weigh in and if they've lowered their weight to a healthy level, they get a cash incentive every three months." (:08) 

More after this...

((( SPOTS )))

Weigh and Win is the partnership between Kaiser Permanente and a health technology company, incentaHealth.

They both have an interest in cutting health care costs, says Todd Maguire, the co-founder of incentaHealth.

SOT - Todd McGuire "In terms of every dollar spent running this program should generate about a three-dollar reduction in health care costs." (:07)

What they're doing, he says, is teaching.

SOT - Todd McGuire "By learning portion control, by learning how to incorporate activity into your day, you can build on a weight loss path that's more modest - but more reasonable, we think, in the long haul." (:09)

More modest? How modest? What's the track record been so far?

SOT - Todd McGuire
"Over the course of the year, the average success of people losing weight in the program is about twelve pounds, or about a six percent reduction in their body weight." (:08)

It's body weight percentage that the reward program is keyed to. The more you lose, the more you gain on that debit card. Health spot kiosks located around town record the weight and a digital photo of participants.

They want to encourage community groups to set up their own programs that address the growing obesity crisis.

Says Todd McGuire: if it's obesity you face, slow and steady wins the race.

SOT: - Todd McGuire
"We are going to do a slow and steady progression over time that you can live with that's not as dramatic as the reality TV type of weight loss that you might see." (:08)

The Osgood File. Charles Osgood on the CBS Radio Network.

The Osgood File. May 5th, 2011.