Enhancing Patient Compliance - A Value-Based Approach To Managing Employee Health

05-10-2007 | Categories:

Alignment

Health Over Health Care
By Carly Harrington Knoxville News Sentinel
May 9, 2007

High Value Vs Low Cost Healthcare

This article reports on the 10th annual health benefit forum sponsored by HealthCare 21 Business Coalition, “a non-profit, member driven organization committed to improving the quality and cost of healthcare in Tennessee and the surrounding region.”¹

The keynote speaker, David Hom, Vice President Of Strategic Initiatives for Pitney Bowes, described that company’s health-care strategy that focuses on understanding employee needs and designing a health benefits plan that encourages healthy behavior. The central concept of this strategy is is characterized in this excerpt:

Companies, he said, must collect and analyze data about their employees to target initiatives that will address those costs not only associated with health care but also disability, workers’ compensation and absenteeism. “We don’t talk about health care. We talk about health. Health is critical,” Hom said. Identifying risks The average annual cost of care for a diabetic at Pitney Bowes is about $2,500. When an employee uses only $1,000 worth of care, it should be a clear indicator that the person isn’t taking the appropriate steps to manage their disease. While some employers may not consider lower health-care claims “a bad thing,” Hom said, “noncompliance is a key predictor of high health-care consumption” down the road.

Noncompliance is a key predictor of high health-care consumption

Also held to be important were incentives such as lowering premiums for healthy employees and those who participate in such programs as weight loss and smoking-cessation classes, free medications, and eliminating co-pays. Pitney Bowes offers a Health Care University that allows employees the opportunity to earn credits for healthy activities and education as well as an on-site clinic and fitness center.

Commentary

What can I add? Business guys like David Hom get it. His “value-based” approach that sets employee health as a mutually beneficial goal for the employer and employee is precisely congruent with the “no-nonsense” alignment of the interests of the stakeholders in healthcare I promote.

Footnotes