January 2009 Edition
By Michael Taylor, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for LifeMasters Supported SelfCare Inc.
A poor economy is a good time to think about saving on health care costs.
In these tight economic times, employers and other payers are looking to justify every dollar spent on medical care and may be tempted to pull back on their health improvement programs. However, employers now have a perfect opportunity to transform the economic downturn into a positive return-on-investment. In fact, one of the quickest routes to generating cost savings is through increased participation in programs that target key cost drivers such as diabetes, congestive heart failure, asthma, coronary artery disease, hypertension, and others.
Such programs often include participant coaching and regular telephone support from a personal health professional. Among other things, participants may learn how to monitor their vital signs and symptoms to detect early changes in their health status, such as blood glucose levels. In some programs, participants' physicians are notified of any significant changes in their health between office visits so a medical professional can intervene early to avoid emergency room visits and hospitalizations.
Health improvement programs have gained momentum in recent years as employers struggle to manage health care costs and keep employees healthy and productive, but offering programs alone may not be enough to move the needle. Company executives must take a hard look at enrollment rates and determine if they are doing everything they can to build and sustain participation.
To have a significant clinical impact on the health of a population, it is necessary to have as many members of that population as possible enroll in the program. Whether your disease management provider is a national vendor or part of your health plan, you’ll want to get the most out of your investment. Consider the following questions:
- How can you help me determine the needs, motivations, and decision-making processes of my employees?
- How is the participant informed of the program? What messaging is used-–both in print and by telephone outreach?
- How are these messages adapted to the appropriate literacy levels, culture, age, and medical condition of my employees?
- How are the participants’ physicians notified of the health status of my employees?
No Detail Too Small
There is also much to gain in understanding your marketing and fulfillment process. In addition to participant demographic variables, employers may improve their enrollment rates by better understanding seemingly mundane variables such as the match between the day and time when calls are made to those who are employed out of the home versus those who are retired or work in the home.
An October report by the DMAA: The Care Continuum Alliance emphasized that now is the time to increase our commitment to the chronically ill–-not cut back.
Clinical outcomes improve the longer a participant remains in your program. Higher participation rates means greater satisfaction, better outcomes, healthier populations, and reduced health care costs over time. That’s always good for the bottom line–-in good economic times and bad.
LifeMasters Supported SelfCare Inc. is a provider of health improvement and condition management programs and services that create health partnerships among individuals and their physicians. The programs improve the quality of care for populations with risk factors and chronic conditions and reduce health care cost trends for the nation’s leading health plans, employers, retirement systems, labor unions/trusts, and governmental organizations. Contact Michael Taylor at mxtaylor[at]lifemasters.com or 650-829-6127.