By Taylor Godbey, executive vice president and COO at Advanced Plan for Health
Providing your employer clients with the right mix of services and support boosts your chances of standing out and winning and retaining their business. Fortunately, most self-insured employers want the same thing: healthy employees, positive employee health care experiences and reduced costs. Sounds simple enough, but how can you be sure that you are offering the best solutions in today’s strained and ever-changing health care environment?
When it comes time to select (or reselect) a health plan, the factors being considered by employer decision-makers are evolving. As the offerings from health plans become more comprehensive, the employer is facing more pressure to select a partner who will truly support them in reducing health care costs. To remain competitive in this market, and meet growing client demands, health plans must become trusted advisors – offering targeted recommendations about how to use data and analytics to create measurable programs aimed at specific high cost/high risk populations.
In order to win and retain more business, health plans should ask themselves the following questions: Am I making the best use of available client population health data and do I have the tools to help my clients look at cost trends and take action quickly?
In order to answer these questions, and more, you need comprehensive and easy-to-use analytics that provide a high-level situational overview and also allow for deep dives to understand the unique trends impacting each of your clients. Analytics that deliver insight for reactive as well as proactive engagement, clinical and medical support.
Health plans have been gathering and sharing data with their clients for longer than almost any other industry. Analyzing claims data and other data sources has long been important to guiding your clients to better manage costs. What we’re seeing now is growing interest in using longitudinal and predictive analytics to support action-based and measurable wellness programs, comprehensive case management, and the integration of alternative services like telehealth.
Fine-tuning your wellness programs with analytics Wellness programs become exponentially more beneficial when they are powered by comprehensive longitudinal analytics to make them more targeted and measurable. Employers looking to keep employees healthy and reduce absenteeism and overall turnover of the workforce want programs that provide employees with resources that are most likely to have an impact. In fact, 46% of small firms and 83% of large firms offer wellness programs that address at least one of the following: smoking cessation, weight management, behavioral or lifestyle coaching. Further, 42% of large firms’ employees have a financial incentive to participate in or complete a wellness program.
Recent advancements in health technology, data aggregation and data analysis means health coaches, data scientists and benefits managers now have the tools and actionable intelligence necessary to make lasting improvements to the populations they manage. Make sure your wellness and chronic condition management programs provide health coaches with the crucial data sets they need.
