How To Turn Analytics Into Action with Care Navigation Solutions

The past few years have brought health & wellbeing directly to the forefront for many employers as employees struggled with burnout, lack of engagement and ultimately left their roles for other opportunities.

One positive out of recent years is that wellness programs have come out of a silo and become top of mind for many employers. Corporate wellness programs are no longer a “check the box” or “nice to have” but an absolute must to attract, retain employees and ultimately remain an employer of choice with competitive benefits packages. The health and wellbeing of any workforce is a critical component of overall engagement and performance. When we look at identifying opportunities to create value through a health & wellbeing program, we look at three key factors:

1. What do employees want and value?
2. What’s driving health risk and cost?
3. Is the organizational infrastructure supporting program success?

There are several ways to identify the needs and interests of employees, from surveys to demographic analyses, but the rest is comprised of a two-pronged approach:

1. A sophisticated, data-driven health intelligence platform
2. A strategy to connect individuals with the right resources at the right time

Identifying the most prominent risk factors within a population used to be the hard part. Most employers (pending their size and funding status in some cases) can now access at least basic summary statistics related to the most prevalent diseases, risk factors, gaps in care, and high-cost procedures. A best-case scenario can consist of:

• Integration of multiple data sources such as medical claims, pharmacy data, and wellness program data
• Risk stratification to help prioritize the most significant opportunities to mitigate costs
• Predictive modeling to establish a business case for investment in intervention
• Established population cohorts to benchmark and measure the success of intervention programs

These capabilities often come with a price tag. Still, they are well worth the cost, by providing employers with meaningful insights to better manage their health care spending, the second-largest business expense for many organizations. The problem? Most stop there.

The data and insights are meaningless without action and the ability to connect the dots. Budgets can undoubtedly limit how much action employers can take at once, such as implementing vendor solutions to tackle mental health conditions, advanced chronic diseases, or high-risk pregnancies. Plus, implementing programs that offer personalized coaching and resources based on health conditions doesn’t solve the issue unless employees suffering and struggling are connected with the right programs and resources at the right time.

The most value for your investment can be achieved by implementing one single solution, care navigation. An effective care navigation program tackles critical business objectives:

• Focuses on the employee experience
• Reduces wasteful health care spending
• Diminishes poor employee health and low engagement
• Maximizes the overall investment in employee wellbeing programs

Care navigation also offers immense value to the individual employee by reducing time and energy spent on confusing health care bills, deciphering treatment plans, finding a physician, providing peace of mind, and alleviating barriers to accessing employer-sponsored programs and benefits.

For more on how to maximize your investments and support your people, read 25 Cost Containment Strategies for Healthcare, Pharmacy, and Workforce Optimization.