Innovation Briefs 2010

Express Scripts Establishes Industry’s Most Comprehensive Specialty Benefits Organization

Express Scripts, Inc. announced the formation of Express Scripts Specialty Benefit Services, the industry’s most comprehensive specialty benefits organization. Express Scripts now delivers plan sponsors a first-in-the-industry offering that enhances patient care across the pharmacy-medical spectrum, and guarantees savings on the specialty medical drug spend. The new organization expands the company’s long-standing commitment to enhancing patient care and reducing wasteful expenses associated with chronic, high maintenance health conditions and specialty medications. Express Scripts is the first PBM to bring together the three functional areas needed to comprehensively manage specialty benefits: 1) pharmacy benefit management, 2) specialty pharmacy and distribution and 3) medical benefit management. The vital third component—medical benefit management—is delivered through the company’s long-standing subsidiary, Care Continuum. By integrating core PBM and pharmacy services with expanded capabilities through Care Continuum, Express Scripts offers an unprecedented solution to specialty patient care and trend management across both pharmacy and medical benefits.

 Lighthouse1 Launches Lighthouse1 OnDemand 2011

Lighthouse1, a recognized technology leader in the consumer-driven health care market (CDHC), has launched Lighthouse1 OnDemand 2011 through a live web event. Lighthouse1 OnDemand is a cloud computing solution that enables nearly 100 leading nationwide third party administrators, financial institutions and health plans to serve more than 20,000 employers and 2.5 million consumers on a single, hosted platform. Lighthouse1 OnDemand 2011 includes more than 100 enhancements that empower, extend and innovate the Lighthouse1 solution for partners, employers and consumers. Because of the solution’s innovative architecture, new enhancements can be released during the plan year with little to no interruption to user experiences or service levels. The launch—which was attended in person or via the Internet by hundreds of Lighthouse1 partners, CDHC industry influencers and Lighthouse1 team members—highlighted key product and technology enhancements and outlined the upcoming product roadmap, including the continually evolving Lighthouse1 Mobile. Mobile devices represent the next stage in consumer self-service, and Lighthouse1 Mobile enables consumers to access and upload information about their health care account, 24/7/365 from anywhere, via their smart phone. Dozens of time-saving administrative features in Lighthouse1 OnDemand 2011 help partners expand their HSA, HRA, FSA and Wellness businesses while increasing operational efficiencies as well as the user satisfaction of employers and consumers.

Milestone Document Calls for Inclusion of Chiropractic in Patient-Centered Models of Value-Based Design

The Foundation for Chiropractic Progress is pleased to announce that the Center for Health Value Innovation (CHVI), experts in value-based design who link superior health outcomes to improved business performance, has released a landmark document: Outcomes-Based Contracting: The Value-Based Approach for Optimal Health with Chiropractic Services. Cyndy Nayer, CEO of CHVI and the voice of value-based design, along with leaders from the Center, point to chiropractic intervention as one area in which new analysis may define the placement in the care continuum. “The Foundation asked us to consider the insertion of chiropractic into the value-based benefit designs for low back and neck pain based upon a recently published study,” noted Nayer, citing the 2009 study Do Chiropractic Physician Services for Treatment of Low Back and Neck Pain Improve the Value of Health Benefit Plans? conducted by Niteesh Choudhry, M.D., PhD, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Arnold Milstein, M.D., MPH, which concluded that chiropractic care could be an effective and cost-efficient service for relief of pain and reduction in disability.

Innovative Program Helps to Increase Medication Compliance

Imagine having to face the daily struggle of taking four or more different medications a day to manage multiple chronic health conditions; add to this the worry of missing or taking a dose incorrectly. For members of UniCare Health Plan of Kansas (UniCare), that daily struggle will now be simplified to help increase medication adherence and reduce medication errors. UniCare will now offer members the opportunity to enroll in the DailyMed Pharmacy program. This new program, a first in Kansas, eliminates the guesswork when taking complex or multiple prescriptions by providing members with a 30-day supply of their medications, delivered to their homes, in pre-sorted packets marked with the day, date and time the medications should be taken. An estimated 2,600 members are eligible to participate in this innovative program. In addition, because individuals who take more medications can find it difficult to adhere to their medication regimens, members will benefit from a team of DailyMed pharmacists who will provide coordinated care and phone consultations to closely monitor the safety, efficacy and compliance of their medication therapy. In fact, a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine cited that better adherence to high blood pressure medication alone, could prevent 89,000 premature deaths in the country annually.

Tango Health Completes $3 Million Series A Equity Financing Round

 

The Employee Benefits Group division of Sun Life Financial, Inc. announced the launch of the “YOU” enrollment marketing campaign created to help employers educate and engage their employees during voluntary benefit enrollments. The campaign’s theme, “It’s time for you to take control of your benefits,” is designed to present product features and benefits to employees in plain language, free of acronyms and insurance jargon. In addition to the new campaign, Sun Life ramped up enrollment efforts by expanding their enrollment organization, enhancing online enrollment, personalizing enrollment booklets, and conducting their second annual voluntary enrollment survey. The Voluntary Benefits: Key Factors Influencing Employee’s Choices Study examines employees’ decision-making process when electing voluntary benefits at work.

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Introduces Anthem Health Rewards

Rising health care costs are prompting many employers to seek new health benefits solutions that will encourage healthier behaviors in their employees. In

response to customers’ needs, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is introducing a new product designed to increase engagement in health and wellness activities,

resulting in healthier and more productive employees. Known as Anthem Health Rewards, the product enables Anthem customers to provide their employees with a variety of rewards - for example, gift cards, premium contribution discounts and account deposits—when they complete a health risk assessment and/or participate in health and wellness programs offered by Anthem, such as FutureMoms and care management programs for people living with chronic conditions such as diabetes.

Health Dialog Announces New Product Suite

Health Dialog has launched a new suite of products to address the changing marketplace for population health management—services that help people stay well, prevent illness, manage chronic disease, and make important decisions about their treatment. The new product suite is designed to clearly communicate the company’s unique approach and portfolio of capabilities, products, and solutions post U.S. health care reform. The suite is built on Health Dialog’s core capabilities of analytics, whole person coaching, evaluation, and decision support.This new product suite reflects the evolution of Health Dialog’s services, including features such as guaranteed engagement levels required by employer groups, advanced reporting or the greater integration of physicians with care management offered by health plans, and new financial arrangements that reduce risk for health plans.