"The fitness and wellness portions of ClearAdvantage, a new program from ClearPoint LLP insurance brokerage of Seattle, have prompted the 41-year-old manager to resume his running, improve his diet and engage in friendly competition with colleagues to get fit."

""I haven't felt this good since I was 25 years old," Spensley said. "I think I've extended my life a good bit.""

"One component of ClearAdvantage is that the employer can impose a high deductible fee while also setting aside money that employees can use toward paying that deductible. "

"This is meant to make employees more aware of what medicine and medical treatment really cost -- and of what alternatives may be available -- while not penalizing them for deciding to use health care."

"The plan's second component is knocking off up to 15 percent of each employee's insurance premiums, depending on how actively they participate in a health and fitness program designed to ward off the most serious and costly illnesses."

"Two independent researchers said the ClearAdvantage program is unusual, if not unique, in that it provides two separate methods to contain health insurance expenses."

"Those expenses, already climbing at three times the rate of inflation, represent 16 percent of the gross domestic product, says the non-partisan National Coalition on Health Care. So controlling them is both difficult and essential."

""Providing controls on spending, and at the same time giving incentives and resources to improve employees' health, are the two factors that can help" hold down costs."

"Steven Aldana, a physician researching lifestyle medicine at Brigham Young University, said such programs are catching on "in a massive trend, but glacially," because they're obvious and yet difficult to implement."

""Insurers are doing more than they did over the past 20 years to help employers help employees maintain healthier lifestyles," he said."

"Health insurance aims to spread the cost of care among an entire insured group. But 10 percent of the U.S. population generates between 70 percent and 80 percent of health care costs, through large claims from serious illnesses such as cancer, strokes, diabetes and heart disease. "

"That means the other 90 percent of the population is paying a share of the costs disproportionate to its consumption of health care. But 70 percent of cancer, 71 percent of cardiovascular disease and 92 percent of adult-onset diabetes can be avoided if people change their behavior, said ClearPoint managing partner Kevin Overbey, citing journals of occupational medicine. "

"A popular hypothesis states that if 30 percent of people improved their diets, simply moved about more and dealt better with stress, health care costs could be reduced 24 percent per year nationwide, he said."

"Rewarding employees' "preventive maintenance" has struck several Washington employers as a good idea. So far, six local companies, with a total of about 3,000 employees, have signed on to ClearAdvantage's two-year-old program."

"They include Samson Rope Technologies Inc. of Ferndale; SeaBright Insurance Co., a property and casualty insurer based in Seattle; Seattle's Port Blakely Companies; and The Cobalt Group, a Seattle advertising company assisting carmakers and retailers."

"Overbey, who created the program, said he expects to have as many as 100,000 employees in the trust within five years."

"To participate, employers must have less than a 40 percent annual turnover rate of employees and must use Premera Blue Cross, Unum Life Insurance Co. or LifeWise Assurance Co. as their insurers."

"Each employee at a participating company must take a 20-minute health risk appraisal, assessing health habits, family health history, cooking and eating habits and stress levels at home and at work. They receive a 21-page health assessment afterward."

"Then biometric data -- in the nature of a non-invasive physical and some minimal blood work -- is collected from each employee. "

"If employees are deemed at high risk for illness, they get a call from a health coach and have the option of making changes in their eating and exercise habits."

"At the program's heart is a device called a kinetic activity monitor, an accelerometer the size of a half-dollar that employees can choose to wear on their belts to monitor the frequency and intensity of their movement."

"Just wearing the device lets employees
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