Corporate benefits managers and CFOs all agree that preventing or delaying the onset of chronic disease among their employee populations is critical to containing medical claims costs. Yet, designing and managing employee health and wellness programs that have a sustained, measurable impact on employees’ health outcomes is a challenging task.
Traditionally employers have used de-identified aggregate output from health risk assessments and medical claims to help provide a directional guide in designing employee health and wellness programs.
This approach provides a high-level retrospective view into a population’s health status. For instance, it can show how many people are high cost utilizers, who is diagnosed with chronic disease, gaps in care, etc. However, it doesn’t answer key questions about the future risk in the population like: Which subgroups and individuals in the population are carrying most of the future near-term avoidable disease burden and cost? How much of the future disease risk is avoidable? Which modifiable risk factors are driving the majority of future disease risk? What areas should my health and wellness program focus on to have impact?
Utilizing a clinically validated disease risk assessment tool that integrates with medical and pharmacy claims provides both a prospective and retrospective view on the health status of an employee population and more importantly answers the questions above by pinpointing key avoidable health cost drivers in the population. Armed with this information organizations can create targeted health intervention strategies to provide the greatest potential for near-term risk reduction and cost savings.
What to look for in a Disease Risk Assessment Tool
• Is it clinically validated with peer-reviewed publications?
• Does it identify the future near-term disease and cost burden at the individual, subgroup, and population levels?
• Does it identify and quantify how much of that risk is avoidable?
• Can it be combined with medical and pharmacy claims?
• Does it enhance employee knowledge, communication, and engagement?
• Does it quantify and measure risk and cost burden change over time?
Orthus Health’s Know Your Number® Disease Risk Assessment is a clinically validated, evidenced-based disease risk assessment tool that predicts near-term risk for the 6 most costly and modifiable chronic diseases.
For employees: Know Your Number provides an engaging report that shows their near-term risk of disease; how much is modifiable, risk compared to peers, and the risk factors that are in their control and have the greatest impact on their future health.
For employers: Know Your Number combined with Orthus Health’s claims analytics provides both a prospective and retrospective population analysis that helps direct strategy and quantifies the return on health investments and related interventions. This unique analytical approach provides benefits managers and CFOs with critical real-time information about their employee population that reveals:
• The current health status of the population, gaps in care, and most importantly the future near-term avoidable disease and associated cost burden at the individual and population levels.
• The key health cost drivers in the population
• The subgroups in the population that have the greatest potential for risk reduction and cost savings. This allows for targeted coaching and wellness strategies that provide the greatest potential for near-term risk reduction and cost savings.
If you’d like more information on how Orthus Health’s Know Your Number disease risk assessment and our other health and wellness services can drive results for your health and wellness program please contact us to begin a conversation.