HealthCare Consumerism Radio

The featured guest on this week's program is Dr. Christopher Whaley, an adjunct professor of health policy at UC Berkley and RAND Corporaton researcher, who also works with Castlight Health on research studies. In today's interview, Dr. Whaley will discuss how reference-based pricing helps employers and patients lower costs of care.  
Reference-based pricing is a type of benefit design that enables an employer to establish the maximum amount it will cover for a specific service. This maximum amount is the reference price. If their employee should choose to receive care for that service at a location that charges more than the reference price, the employee will be responsible for paying the amount above the reference price.  

The first guest today will be Linda Heuer, founder of 121 Benefits. Earlier this year, Linda purchased Eide Bailly Employee Benefits Services from the well-known CPA firm and introduced a new TPA to the Midwest. The company is called 121 Benefits. Heuer, a former Eide Bailly principal, had noticed that the benefits industry was becoming increasingly self-service, which runs counter to the increasing complexity that employers and individuals face when dealing with health benefits. As a result, her focus with 121 Benefits is to provide a more responsive, personal, face-to-face service experience and a high level of benefits expertise. Using her team’s first-hand knowledge of employer preferences for one-to-one service and their proven compliance leadership, the 121 Benefits team offers a fresh approach for private and public employers.
The second guest on this week's show will be Bill Haber, senior director, business development for PokitDok, an API platform built to power the business of health. In this segment, Bill will discuss how PokitDok’s APIs power interoperable transactions and how that relates to health care consumerism. He will also talk about how hospital systems, digital health companies and systems integrators, to name a few, can utilize PokitDok’s platform to improve workflows, cut costs and put power in the hands of the patient.

On the first segment of today's show, Dr. Dee Edington and Jack Bastable, co-founders of the Edington CBIZ Next Practice Awards, tell us how the award program came to be, how companies earn the award and what the value of this special achievement is. Doug and the guests will also talk about some highlights from the well-being track at 2016 IHC FORUM West in Las Vegas. Collaborating with expert consultants at CBIZ, we have designed five workshop sessions that cover the range of wellness in today's workplace. Tune in at 11:10 a.m. (ET) to learn more about the Edington CBIZ Next Practice Awards and what we have planned for November's conference.
For the second segment, Doug will talk with Jen Arnold, owner of Redesigning Wellness, a consulting and training company that creates engaging and effective health and wellness strategies for forward thinking organizations. Worksite wellness should be treated just like any other business initiative in your company. Unfortunately, it rarely gets the attention it deserves. Often the responsibilities are thrown on an overworked HR person who already has too much on their plate. And these activities usually stay in HR with little exposure to the CEO. Wellness turns into haphazard activities, the same people participating and maybe the occasional Biggest Loser contest. Then you pray you’ll find something in your annual health care claims that shows a positive ROI. That’s not the way results happen! In this interview, Jen will talk about ways to redesign the common worksite wellness program in order to gain better traction and results.

The first guest on this week's program will be Jessica Grossmeier, vice president of research, HERO. The concept that good health is good business has been validated over the years by research linking health risk factors to higher employee health care costs, reduced on-the-job productivity and higher absenteeism. More recently, research has expanded its focus to overall well-being, with some studies showing a correlation between low employee well-being, higher turnover, lower employee engagement and lower employee performance. Now, the latest emerging body of research, including a new study from HERO, demonstrates that improved stock performance may be yet another reason to invest in a healthy workforce. In this interview, Jessica will share the findings and discuss the applications of this new research. 
For the second segment, we'll continue the wellness theme as we welcome Jeff Brizzolara, PhD, MPH, chief clinical officer, Viverae, to the show. Analyzing the true impact of a corporate wellness program can be tricky, as companies have learned that compiling individual health improvements across an entire population to form one standard of measurement is difficult. To formulate program effectiveness, more employers are embracing value of investment or return on investment, but oftentimes they can’t make the direct connection from seeing a significant difference in their health care costs. The traditional framework for health care ROI needs to change in order to portray a more accurate figure, which includes critical factors that sustain a healthy lifestyle or contribute to improvements in productivity.

The first guest is Sean McManamy, SVP, strategy and product, HealthFitness, who discusses elusive drivers of wellness program participation. Sean will share new research that shows that to drive participation in wellness programs employers must address both the emotional and functional needs of employees and include personalized, customized communications. The research survey – conducted by HealthFitness in 2015 and 2016 – shows that wellness program participants have greater satisfaction with programs offered, perceived themselves as healthier and have a more positive attitude toward their employer. Yet, despite the myriad of available tools, tech and programs that are attractive to employees, a significant number – nearly 60 percent – remain outside of the program.: They are those who indicate they are likely to start participating, but for some reason do not. Fortunately, research findings point to ways employers can maximize the significant potential of their wellness programs by focusing on some of the elusive drivers that move employees to take action.
For the second segment, Dr. Adrian Rawlinson, chief medical officer and co-founder at Obeo Health, joins the show to discuss how to use health care data for the benefit of both employees and employers. Obeo Health is a health care technology leader changing how employees engage with their health care decisions. Their platform combines advanced prescriptive analytics and personal health data to give more transparency and control. By helping employees objectively evaluate, manage and understand their health care needs, Obeo Health's solutions drive down costs and increase satisfaction for everyone.