By Evan Falchuk
There are plenty of “survivalists” out there who stock their basements with canned goods, getting ready for some unexpected (and unlikely) apocalypse.
Meanwhile there are things that are much more likely to happen to you, like getting sick, which many of us don’t prepare for at all.
So to help you get started, here are five important tips on how you can become a health care survivalist.
By Evan Falchuk
Marketing pros say their top priority is social media. But in industries like health care benefits it’s not really happening. Benefits thought leaders have been on the sidelines, just when their voices are needed to be heard the most.
Now, for those who think social media is for kids, or for people in super-edgy industries, it just isn’t so. Watch this short summary video of a round-table on social media I participated in recently (disclosure: my company, Best Doctors, works with the company that sponsored it, PAN Communications).
The forum was moderated by the on-line Editor of the Harvard Business Review, and included key marketing leaders from HP Hood, Novell and Forrester Research. The video gives an interesting insight into just how much is really going on in social media in corporate America – and how much you’re missing if you’re not taking part.
So, if you’re on the sidelines: Get in the game.
One good place to start is to listen to my (completely free!) social media 101 webinar. Remember, to participate in social media, you don’t need to say anything.
All you need to do is listen.
By Evan Falchuk
“We want our employees to spend their time on real issues,” said Charlie Salter, VP of Benefits at ConAgra. He means it. Charlie and ConAgra have built their health care benefits around some simple concepts that are yielding impressive results.
How impressive?
Close to flat health care cost trend since 2007.
Charlie’s work is part of a growing trend among America’s most innovative companies: designing health care benefits in ways that have a real impact on quality and cost. It’s why I asked Charlie to share the podium with me in Boca Raton this morning. ConAgra is showing it’s possible to control health care costs by helping people do the right thing.
By Evan Falchuk
I’m speaking this morning at the 23rd Annual Benefits Forum and Expo. This is one of the premier events in the health care benefits industry, and it’s a thrill for me to be the opening speaker on the “Health Care” track.
I’m presenting along with Charlie Salter, the VP of Benefits of ConAgra, one of our customers at Best Doctors. The talk Charlie and I will give is called “Real Results: When Individuals are in Control of their Health Care.”
As regular readers know, good things happen when people are in control of their care. They have a chance to make sure they’re not one of the 20% of people that end up with an incorrect diagnosis, or the more than 60% of people that end up with the wrong treatment. It’s the single most powerful thing you can do to make sure your health care experience is as good as it can possibly be.
It’s something that more and more highly innovative companies like ConAgra are making the core of their health care benefits programs. Not only does it improve the quality of care for their employees, it also saves the company significant amounts of money – real dollars – by avoiding misguided care.
Visit back later, I’ll share some observations after the talk.
By Evan Falchuk
Fortune magazine has made some news recently about the impact of health care reform on large employers:
Internal documents recently reviewed by Fortune, originally requested by Congress, show what the bill’s critics predicted, and what its champions dreaded: many large companies are examining a course that was heretofore unthinkable, dumping the health care coverage they provide to their workers in exchange for paying penalty fees to the government.
The only trouble? There’s no way these employers are seriously thinking about doing this.
By Evan Falchuk
Giving people “incentives” to spend their money wisely is a growing part of the solution to rising health care costs. Give people financial responsibility for their health care decisions, the thinking goes, and they’ll make cost-effective choices.
It’s usually done by having people pay part of the cost of their employer-provided health coverage, and through things like higher deductibles and co-pays. Today, on average, people in the private sector pay 20% or more of the cost of their coverage. The trend is for this number to go up.
But it’s not true everywhere.
If you look in the public sector you see a different, more troubling story. It’s a lesson in what can happen when incentives go wrong in health care. (more…)
By Evan Falchuk
Prevention. Also, prevention, prevention, prevention, prevention,prevention, prevention,prevention, prevention, prevention, and prevention. Finally, prevention, prevention, prevention, spam, prevention,prevention, prevention,prevention, prevention,prevention, prevention, prevention, prevention.
I’m overstating it, but this was the major theme of the Employer Health and Human Capital Congress which I attended yesterday outside of Washington, DC. It’s a major event for benefits professionals and in spite of the pending snowpocalypse, was very well attended. I moderated a panel about how people need help navigating the health care system. But the gap between all the talk about prevention and the reality that a lot of people are going to get sick no matter what was the talk of this group.
By Evan Falchuk
That’s the headline in today’s Boston Herald. It tells the story of young Michael Sanders, who was born in 2007. Michael went home from the hospital but after a few weeks in which he didn’t seem right, his mom, Denise took him to the doctor. As the Herald reports:
A seemingly routine doctor’s visit brought devastating news: the baby had a fatal, congenital heart defect and just a few weeks to live.
“They said he would never, ever have a normal functioning heart,” his mother recalled, “and they said nothing could be done to fix it.”
The parents, Chris and Denise, got a second opinion from another doctor that supported the original finding. They didn’t have much choice. They brought hospice workers into their home, and started to make arrangements for Michael’s funeral.
At work, Denise had Best Doctors as an employee benefit. She decided to call and see if there was any hope, or if she really had to face the reality of her awful situation. “I was a little afraid to call at first,” she said, “but then I thought, at least it will confirm what I already know.”
After gathering and reviewing Michael’s records, Best Doctors consulted with Dr. Pedro del Nido, chief of cardiac surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. del Nido told them very unexpected news – Michael had been misdiagnosed. In fact, he told them, he could fix Michael’s defect and allow him to live a completely normal life. In May 2008, he had the surgery, which went extremely well.
Today, Chris and Denise brought Michael, now almost 3, to visit us at Best Doctors, along with Michael’s big sister Katie. Michael is a very outgoing and playful 2 year-old. He attends pre-school at his family church, where I’m told Michael was greeted as a hero on his first day of school. The community had rallied around young Michael after he was born and during his surgery and recovery, and so his arrival at pre-school was a milestone in the lives of so many people.
Chris and Denise both told me they don’t know why our paths crossed, Best Doctors and the Sanders family. We are honored that they did. And we are grateful that they came to see us today to share their story, and to give us a chance to meet them and their wonderful son. I know I am also thankful for the many people at Best Doctors that helped Michael through his journey, especially Helen Thomas, one of our member advocates.
It is a freezing cold day today in Boston, but not in the offices of Best Doctors.
Michael, earlier this year in Boston
UPDATE: The local Fox affiliate in Boston is covering this story tonight at 6. And the local NBC affiliate will have it on this evening as well. Video to follow.
UPDATE 2: A complete round-up of media coverage is here.
By Evan Falchuk
Australia’s riskinfo.com, a leading publication for benefits advisers, released today the results of its study of the three “Best Initiatives of 2009.”
I’m proud to say that Best Doctors made the list for a program it launched with leading Australian insurer MLC.
The experience shared with Australian advisers during the launch of Best Doctors by leading UK adviser, Colin Boxall, in his capacity as an adviser and also as a father of a very sick child, served to highlight the value of this service. Mr Boxall told advisers that in relation to receiving claim benefits for critical illnesses “… sometimes, having money is not enough.”
Congratulations to everyone who worked on this important initiative, especially Frank Ahedo, head of our European business, who spearheaded this effort. It underscores what I’ve written about many times before – no matter where you live, or what health care system your country has, the experience of being sick is mostly the same.
Mr. Boxall said it very well indeed.
By Evan Falchuk
Over at The Corner, Ramesh Ponnuru theorizes that people want more control over how they spend their health care dollars:
[Ezra] Klein’s argument is that if employees understood that the employer’s alleged share of their health-care costs are really part of their wages — and if they saw it on their paychecks — they would be more supportive of cost control. I agree with that. But I assume he means (based on his examples in this op-ed) that they would be more supportive of cost controls imposed by HMOs or Congress. I think they would be more inclined to favor turning over control of health insurance from their employers to themselves, and making the cost-quality trade-offs for themselves with their own money. Under the status quo, those trade-offs are made by other people and the fact that it’s the employees’ money is obscured.
It sounds nice in theory. But in practice it seems to be exactly wrong.
