Plan sponsors and members win with integrated health management

While many countries envy Canada’s health care system, there is certainly room to improve. In fact, Canada currently ranks 10^th out of 11 nations on health care quality, access, and efficiency. That’s because the Canadian health care system is fragmented and complicated. Canadians feel overwhelmed, frustrated, and lost when they try to navigate the health care system to find the services and information they need.

Your customers, plan sponsors, and plan members are part of this perplexed population who are seeking guidance and reliable information on topics ranging from day-to-day health concerns to managing a serious illness.

Canadians’ Common Health Challenges

To understand your plan members’ fundamental health needs, consider these facts:

• According to the Health Council of Canada, 16% of Canadians have no primary care provider.
• The Health Council of Canada also found that 20% of Canadians state that their time has been wasted due to poorly organized or badly coordinated care.
• 17% of Canadians have had to wait 3 months or longer to see a specialist for a new illness in 2013, up from 11% in 2003.
• Specialist physicians surveyed in the 2016 “Waiting Your Turn” Fraser Institute survey report a median waiting time of 20 weeks between referral from a general practitioner and receipt of treatment—longer than the wait of 18.3 weeks reported in 2015. The 2016 wait time is “the longest ever recorded in this survey’s history—[it] is 115% longer than in 1993, when it was just 9.3 weeks.

When seeking help to solve their health care needs, 41% of Canadians polled said they turned to online sites for health information, and 67% of the time they trust the online information that they find. However, that trust may be unfounded, as patients are often unsure about which websites to trust and are concerned about accessing potentially misleading or illegitimate health information on the Internet.

As part of their benefits plan, members have rich health management resources available to them. However, plan members are often unaware of this myriad of programs, which leads to low engagement and underutilized resources. According to the 2016 Sanofi Healthcare survey, 40% of plan members feel that their health issue is impacting their ability to work. Ultimately, their health problems persist and companies suffer a loss of productivity.

Information is Power

Since plan members desire and actively seek valuable health information, a successful health management strategy involves dismantling the silos that keep health management information and services fragmented. When silos are eradicated, we can create a cohesive, recognizable resource that plan members will use.

Delivering one integrated platform, which presents all health management services together, focuses support and simplifies program communications.

Suddenly your integrated health navigation platform works to empower plan members by connecting them with a single source of all their health management programs. This platform helps members navigate the complex health care system with ease and access the resources they need.

Business Benefits

Here are 9 ways plan sponsors benefit from integrated health navigation platforms:

1. Streamlined, integrated health management: Delight plan members by helping them find reliable health information on all the health programs your company offers from all your vendors—quickly and easily.
2. Increase sales: Grow your member marketing results, including member acquisition, program awareness, and loyalty.
3. Boost engagement: Easy, seamless service helps plan members make informed decisions to protect their health.
4. Manage risk: Manage organizational health risk while maximizing sponsored health investments and individual member health.
5. Communicate consistently: Your custom technology design reflects your brand’s look and feel, your unique bundle of health management offerings, and your strategic goals.
6. Gain data insights: Access analytically robust reports to monitor your programs’ results in order to make data-driven decisions based on member-level insights, which optimize your wellness programming.
7. Save time and effort: Implementation is so easy, you will be up and running within weeks, as the whole process (all set-up, customization, and integration) is managed for you.
8. Save money: Achieve operational efficiencies by consolidating all your health programs into a single platform. Deliver more effective disease management programming at a lower cost and with fewer resources.
9. Boost productivity: Promote better health and greater output among workers.

“Integration was quick and easy, and the information available has always been current and relevant to our policyholders and their members.”
~ Peter Pelech, Johnston Group Inc.

How Employees Benefit

Here are 7 ways plan members benefit from integrated health navigation platforms:

1. Convenient, comprehensive resource: Members gain simple, streamlined access to an all-in-one source of employee health management programs, including a single URL and a single phone number for 24/7 access to a health management call centre.
2. Efficient, user-friendly service: Members save time by receiving immediate answers and
3. Omnichannel options: Plan members can access health management services from anywhere using a smartphone, tablet, or desktop thanks to a responsive technology design. See For Successful Health Management, Embrace Technology.
4. Greater awareness: Enticing visual content grabs members’ attention, so they know which programs are available and are motivated to learn more.
5. Personalized care: Members receive relevant, interactive content customized to their specific health needs in order to get the care they need.
6. Peace of mind: Plan members feel confident, knowing they are making truly informed decisions based on trusted information.
7. Health empowerment: Members gain the ability to proactively self-manage their health needs.

Take the Next Step

Novus Health can help plan members who struggle to navigate the complex health care system. We’re a passionate team of technology and business experts and health care professionals. Our integrated health navigation solutions direct people to resources based on their needs and eligibility. As well, we help clients to manage costs and to meet their health management goals while also helping members to live healthier lives. To learn how we can help you, connect with us today at www.novushealth.com or 1-416-640-7867.

For more health information, visit the health section of our blog!

Sources

Barua, B. & Feixue R. (2016, November 23). Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2016 Report. Retrieved from https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/waiting-your-turn-wait-times-for-health-care-in-canada-2016

CBC News. (2011, January 5). Online health advice sought by more Canadians. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/online-health-advice-sought-by-more-canadians-1.982301

Health Council of Canada. (2010, November). How Do Canadians Rate the Health Care System? Results from the 2010 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey. Canadian Health Care Matters: Bulletin 4. Retrieved from http://healthcouncilcanada.ca/tree/2.04-Commonwealth_FINAL_E_Nov2010.pdf

Quintana Y., Feightner J. W., Wathen, C. N., Sangster L. M., & Marshall, J. N. (2001). Preventive health information on the Internet. Qualitative study of consumers’ perspectives. Can Fam Physician, 47(9). Retrieved from http://www.cfp.ca/content/47/9/1759.full.pdf+html

Sanofi S.A. (2016). The Sanofi Canada Healthcare Survey. Retrieved from http://events.snwebcastcenter.com/manulife/GBRS/Prod/Media/PDFs/Health/SanofiReport.pdf

Snowdon, A., Shell, J., & Leitch, K. K. (n.d.). Transforming Health Care through Consumer Engagement: The Key to Quality and System Innovation.  Retrieved from http://www.ivey.uwo.ca/cmsmedia/3468134/consumer-engagement-white-paper-final.pdf

The Commonwealth Fund. (2014, June 16). US Health System Ranks Last Among Eleven Countries on Measures of Access, Equity, Quality, Efficiency, and Healthy Lives. Retrieved from http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/press-releases/2014/jun/us-health-system-ranks-last