WASHINGTON-KaiserHealth News reported that a federal grant program is offeringstates $100 million to reward Medicaid recipients who make wellnessefforts such as weight loss, blood pressure and cholesterol levelreduction and smoking cessation.

Though states have flexibility in terms of how they design theirincentives, federal guidelines suggest that Medicaid enrolleesdemonstrating a commitment toward health improvement be eligible toreceive financial rewards such as coupons or gift certificates.

The program, authorized in the Affordable Health Care Act of2010 (ACA) encourages states to offer incentives for healthybehavior. According to George Loewenstein, a behavioral economistat Carnegie Mellon University, the idea behind such a program isthat economically disadvantaged Medicaid recipients have more togain from such incentives. However, he told KHN he’s somewhatskeptical about whether such incentives could be effective.

KHN noted that a handful of states have tried using thecorporate wellness model in conjunction with Medicaid, and have hadmixed results. Furthermore, research on incentives when it comes tomitigating chronic diseases, such as diabetes, remainsinconclusive.