3 tips to boost your healthcare literacy with technology
Historically, the relationship between consumers and their health plan providers has been a distant and somewhat bumpy one. Some health plan providers get a bad rap for poor communications, leaving consumers on their own to navigate a health care system wrought with confusing language, red tape, and unpredictable costs.
The events of a global pandemic have compounded the complexity of dealing with the healthcare system. A recent J.D. Power Survey found that more than 60% of privately insured U.S. health plan members did not receive any guidance about COVID-19 from their providers. The lack of healthcare literacy — knowing what questions to ask and where to get care — has also created a bigger gap between everyday people and their providers. But the good news is technology can help us get more out of our benefits, making our relationship with health plan providers more connected.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the need for more TLC and attention when it comes to benefits. But technology can help us get the most out of our benefits — strengthening our consumer relationship with health plan providers. By engaging with technology, we can improve our healthcare literacy, identify cost-saving opportunities and be more prepared for the unexpected.
If consumers are going to make an informed decision during open enrollment, they’ll need information about the number of visits they paid to the doctor and the costs of their claims to determine if they should change plans. Maybe they’re paying a lot more in premiums, or perhaps they didn’t meet their deductible. Being engaged with your benefits is key to getting the most out of them.
Tip: Avoid going on autopilot with your benefits. Benefits offerings are always changing, and health providers often offer programs that you can opt-in to free. Make sure you’re set up to receive notifications from your benefits administrators and health plan providers. Then take action. Use the preventative care offerings, likes annual wellness check-ups, and enroll in the programs that will serve you now and in the future.
During the pandemic, there has also been an increase in the use of AI to improve communication across the healthcare ecosystem. For example, patient care in the emergency room (ER) is traditionally delivered numerically — first come, first serve. However, AI can help doctors and caregivers at hospitals prioritize the needs of waiting patients. This can lead to a decrease in wait times in crowded hospitals — especially important during the pandemic. In the same vein, AI can help an individual decide if they truly need to visit the ER or if a telehealth option would be more effective and affordable.
Caregiver support platforms, like Cariloop, are using cloud-base technology to improve communication between providers, consumers and their families. This employer-sponsored benefit offers tailored caregiving plans and coaching for families looking for pediatric and senior care. Cariloop, and other caregiver support platforms, use technology to tap into a system of trusted providers and build caregiving scenarios with planning and calculator tools. Users can adjust for different scenarios, review whatresources are available, and receive personal coaching throughout the caregiving journey.
Tip: Viewing benefits as an item to check off a list once a year means you might be overpaying or leaving benefits on the table. Using claims integrations and decision support tools, like planning calculators, can help you and your family fully engage with your benefits and improve your healthcare literacy.
Benefits administrators and health plan providers are beginning to see the importance of supporting the whole person — through mental wellbeing initiatives or by offering online tutoring discounts, streaming virtual fitness programs, and food delivery services.
Tip: Look to the different options that providers use to deliver holistic and preventative care options. For example, year-long access to audio-guided meditation apps like Headspace or programs built around the use of wearable technology that rewards users who meet personalized activity goals. These initiatives go beyond regular patient care and give you tools to support your wellbeing — not just when you’re feeling under the weather.
New resource offers guidance on digital tools for diabetes management
The market for digital diabetes management tools is continuing to mature. Read this blog post for the Northeast Business Group on Health’s updated guide on diabetes management tools.
The Northeast Business Group on Health has updated its “Digital Tools and Solutions for Diabetes: An Employer’s Guide,” to include both enhanced and new solutions—and promising future innovations—to help employers help their workers better manage their diabetes, lower costs and ultimately save more lives.
“Employers are well aware of the costs associated with diabetes in their employee and dependent populations—they continue to indicate this is a top concern and are increasingly aware of the links between diabetes and other chronic and debilitating health conditions, including cardiovascular disease,” says Candice Sherman, CEO of NEBGH.
The market for digital diabetes prevention and management solutions continues to mature since the group published its first guide in 2016, Sherman says. The updated guide provides a detailed checklist of the features and functionalities of the digital tools available now to manage diabetes, as well as information on several unique and innovative digital diabetes solutions that are being targeted to employers but were not part of NEBGH’s research, including Proteus Discover, BlueLoop and do-it-yourself programs.
“Proteus Discover is comprised of ingestible sensors, a small wearable sensor patch, an application on a mobile device and a provider portal,” the guide cites the provider. “Once activated, Proteus Discover unlocks never-before-seen insight into patient health patterns and medication treatment effectiveness, leading to more informed healthcare decisions for everyone involved.”
“BlueLoop is the one and only tool that allows kids and their caregivers to log and share diabetes information—both online and with the app—in real time, via instant e-mail and text message, giving peace of mind to parents,more class time for students and fewer phone calls and paper logs for school nurses,” the provider tells NEBGH. “Online, parents can share real-time BG logs with their clinicians, who can see logs (in the format they prefer), current dosages and reports, all in one place.”
The guide also hints at promising future innovations:
“Technology is constantly evolving: by connecting sensors, wearables and apps, it is increasingly possible to pool and leverage data in innovative ways to provide timely interventions so that people with diabetes can be truly independent and effectively self-manage their care,” the authors write.
The guide lists a hypothetical scenario: A person with diabetes enters a restaurant where a GPS sensor identifies the location, reviews the menu and proposes the best choices based on caloric and carbohydrate content. The technology also proposes and delivers a rapidly acting insulin bolus dose based on the person’s exercise level that day and prior experiences when eating similar meals.
Also included are key questions for employers considering implementing digital diabetes tools or solutions, including:
- What does the company want to achieve with a digital tool?
- How much is the company willing to pay?
- How will success be measured?
- How will digital solutions and tools be marketed to employees and their families?
- What privacy issues need to be addressed when tools or solutions are implemented?
“Digital health tools hold the promise of improved health outcomes and reduced health care expenses through improved engagement, better collaboration and sustained behavior change,” says Mark Cunningham-Hill, NEBGH’s medical director. “However, digital diabetes solutions are not a panacea. Employers will need to address several obstacles such as the difficulty of recruitment and enrollment, lack of sustained employee engagement and the cost of deployment of digital solutions. This can be accomplished through careful planning and learning from other employers that have successfully implemented these tools.”
SOURCE: Kuehner-Hebert, K. (4 December 2018) "New resource offers guidance on digital tools for diabetes management" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitspro.com/2018/12/04/new-resource-digital-tools-for-diabetes-management/
Counting sleep: New benefit encourages employees to track their shut-eye
Are your employees getting enough sleep? According to the CDC, about one-third of U.S. adults reported getting less than the recommended amount of rest. Read this blog post to learn more.
It’s one of employers’ recurring nightmares: Employees aren’t getting enough sleep — and it’s having a big impact on business.
Roughly one-third of U.S. adults report that they get less than the recommended amount of rest, which is tied to chronic health issues including Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity and depression, the Centers for Disease Control reports.
That lack of sleep is also costing businesses approximately $411 billion a year in lost productivity, according to figures from global policy think tank RAND Corporation.
But one company thinks it has a solution to the problem: A new employee benefit that helps workers track, monitor and improve sleep.
Welltrinsic Sleep Network, a subsidiary of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, this month launched an online sleep wellness program to help workers get more out of their eight hours of shuteye. Employees use the online tool to create a sleep diary, which tracks the quantity and quality of rest, says Dr. Lawrence Epstein, president and CEO of Welltrinsic. Employees manually log their time or upload data from a fitness tracker, like a Fitbit, to the platform.
Employers can offer the program as a benefit to complement broader wellness initiatives. The program allows companies to track how often an employee uses the platform and offer incentives like days off or reduced health insurance premiums if they are consistent, Epstein says. Welltrinsic charges an implementation fee to set up a company’s account, plus a per-user fee determined by the number of participants.
“Sleep affects a lot of aspects of how people feel about their work and their productivity,” Epstein says. “If you can help improve their health and morale, it will help with retaining staff.”
Epstein says lethargic workers are more likely to miss work or not be productive when they are in the office. But there are actionable ways employees can improve the quality of their rest, he adds.
Welltrinsic’s program gives employees a comprehensive review of their sleep. Then employees set a sleep goal — the goal can be as simple as getting to bed at a particular time or improving sleep quality. After employees have logged their data, Welltrinsic provides them with custom tips for improving sleep, which may include reducing light exposure or increasing mindfulness and relaxation.
Still, sometimes an employee may have a more serious issue, Epstein says. If numerous efforts to improve a nighttime ritual have fallen short, an employee may need to be examined for a sleep disorder, he explains. To that end, the program also offers sleep disorder screening tools. If it appears an individual is at risk for a disorder, Welltrinsic provides workers with a list of specialists who can help.
“If we feel they are at risk for a sleep disorder, we can direct them to somebody close to them who will be able to address their problem,” Epstein adds.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine is providing Welltrinsic’s sleep program as a benefit to its own roughly 60 workers. Meanwhile, Epstein says Welltrinsic recently engaged in a beta test of the program with multiple employers but did provide additional names.
“It’s a way that they can help motivate their employees to improve their own health,” he says.
Epstein doesn’t think that employees are aware that they aren’t getting enough sleep — and demanding work schedules aren’t helping. He’s hoping the program will help people realize that sometimes they need to turn off their email and take a rest.
“We are built to spend about a third of our lives sleeping, and there are consequences for not doing that,” he says. “Hopefully this helps get that message and information out to people.”
SOURCE: Hroncich, C. (20 November 2018) "Counting sleep: New benefit encourages employees to track their shut-eye" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/news/counting-sleep-new-benefit-encourages-employees-to-track-their-shut-eye?brief=00000152-1443-d1cc-a5fa-7cfba3c60000