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Illustrating another use for prepaid cards to influence behavior, the Forsyth County, N.C., health department Aug. 28 and 29 handed out $10 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. gift cards to county residents who agreed to be tested for syphilis and HIV, Patrice Toney, the county's supervisor on HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, tells ATM&Debit News, a CardLine sister publication. Twenty teams of three comprised of an interviewer, a counselor and a phlebotomist tested 603 residents by going door to door, Toney says. Each individual 13 years and older who agreed to be tested received a gift card, she says. "We wanted to offer residents an incentive to take the test because many of them never would show up at a clinic to be tested," Toney adds. Forsyth County has North Carolina's highest rate of syphilis cases, Toney says. The state's health department purchased the gift cards from Wal-Mart. In another example of using debit cards to influence behavior, Healy Long & Jevin Inc., a Wilmington, Del.-based concrete construction company, earlier this month announced it would load $25 on employee MasterCard-branded debit cards when as a team they worked a minimum of 30 hours during a week without a recordable accident (CardLine, 9/14). School systems also have issued prepaid debit cards to students to encourage perfect attendance.
