IHT2: Humana chief says Americans need to get healthier to curb crisis
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Citing a survey that Humana conducted of its employees as a microcosm of the larger U.S. population, he said lack of exercise, a poor diet and continued smoking, all contribute to illness - some of the illnesses being chronic.
Speaking in sharp terms about the current healthcare system, McCallister noted that the current preaching to the population is not powerful and that it no longer works. Increased awareness and knowledge is not helping, either, “because the U.S. population says they want to live better lives, but we’re in pretty poor shape,” he said.
“There’s no healthcare literacy in our country. Ninety million Americans say they don’t understand the healthcare system and it’s too complex,” McCallister noted. “We’re a nation of chronically ill, fat people, who are illiterate about our own healthcare.”
A need for collaboration
For innovation to impact healthcare, there needs to be collaboration between providers and payors, “because, obviously, what we’re doing now is not working,” he said.
While there have been ongoing discussions in Washington, D.C., on further Medicare reductions, including recent federal budget debates, McCallister said, “Honestly, it’s totally irrelevant to addressing the systemic and structural flaws of our nation’s healthcare system.”
The cost of health insurance premiums continue to rise because the cost of healthcare continues to go up. McCallister acknowledged what we know: healthcare is not fun. “We don’t pay a lot of attention to it, and we’re not empowered as consumers like we are in other areas of our lives, where we look for and can get the best value for our dollar,” he said.
However, healthcare can be fun. Just ask seniors who Humana works with to regularly engage in activities. “We get them moving and active, and if we get them engaged and involved in digitizing activities, including bicycling, where we can feed information back into the system, showing how they are doing and measure that, then this can lead to positive results for the patient,” he said.
In addition to digitizing healthcare, which McCallister said includes iPod apps and other mobile technologies, there is also the growing use of social media in establishing communities around specific medical issues.
After years of the U.S. population hearing about lowering healthcare costs, “we’re now having a real problem unwinding people’s notion that healthcare isn’t going to cost anything. Individuals have to be engaged in order for better healthcare to occur,” he says.
A successful weight management program by Humana showed that people with a body mass index (BMI) more than 30, spent their entire medical budgets, “while people under 25 BMI spent zero dollars,” he said.
Modifying and motivation
Humana helped thousands of its employees lose more than 8,600 pounds, through a partnership with a personal digital coach technology. The payor offered the program to its employees for improving their health and weight loss through a mobile phone or computer. The employee received meal plans, grocery shopping lists, goal trackers and motivational support.
“People say they hate the lottery but people buy lottery tickets every day. What’s their motivation?” McCallister asked. “A big payday.”
“We did that here and picked names of our employees out of a hat. The winners were several associates who had dropped their weight and increased their activity. Each winner received a check for $10,000. That’s an example of behavioral economics,” he said.
While McCallister is skeptical of accountable care organizations (ACO), he sees their value in terms of the collaborative work that can be done between providers and payors.
He noted work done with Humana and Norton Healthcare in 2010 to launch the first commercial ACO pilot in Louisville, Ky. The Engelberg Center for HealthCare Reform at the Brookings Institution and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice selected Humana and Norton Healthcare to partner in one of several national pilot programs.
McCallister also pointed to the positive impact through its partnership company, Availity. Through a partnership between Humana and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, Availity connects and empowers Florida healthcare providers with online electronic claims tools and other health plan transaction support.
Through this collaborative effort, Florida providers are realizing the benefits of improved healthcare and an innovative way of addressing the growing costs of healthcare.
McCallister noted that behavior modification was crucial to the success of reducing healthcare costs. He compared Humana’s Vitality Personal Pathway to a frequent flyer program offered by airlines. “The frequent flyer program is an example of change modification motivator where you get rewards,” he said. “We wondered if there was a way to apply this to healthcare for behavior modification. You can, and we are demonstrating through Vitality that a wellness program based on physical activity, education, screenings, tobacco cessation and nutrition can be successful,” he said. “The company uses behavior change modeling through incentive programs that motivate people to achieve their personal goals.”