With rising health-care costs, time has come to improve our approach. Health reach outs by means of phone calls or messages have proven to be effective in disease management, reducing the total cost of the treatment.

Team@CMHF

There’s widespread recognition that if we actually prevent and manage disease in the employee population, that’s how we’re going to control health-care costs. A survey noted that, America’s Health Insurance Plans offer health coaching to people who typically don’t have major health problems but want to tune up their habits. The same portion invite people with chronic illness to join their plan’s disease-management program, and about 92 percent offer incentives to encourage behaviour such as curbing tobacco use, eating a balanced diet, getting regular physical activity and keeping up with recommended doctor’s visits and preventive care.

Even if out-of-pocket costs are minimal, money is only one factor in trying to understand why people may not obtain the medical services that could keep them out of harm’s way. Some potentially life-saving screenings such as colonoscopies can be particularly unpleasant, and no amount of rational evidence may convince someone who dreads the prospect of doing the necessary bowel preparation before the procedure.

But there are ways around such objections, and some can be surprisingly subtle. After starting a telephone-based program aimed at upping the colorectal cancer screening rate of ethnic minorities, who are more likely to die from colon cancer, it was found that there was an increase in the number of people who received one of the four recommended types of screenings.
The company aims to help people with chronic conditions, stay compliant with their drug and other therapy regimens. Health Dialog does predictive modelling to see which people are likely to face gaps in care, have trouble adhering to their medication regimens or are heading toward surgery. Its health coaches, which include nurses, educators, respiratory therapists and pharmacists, are trained to make phone calls likely to put people at ease.

Reference: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/HEALTH-REACHOUT_5466196/HEALTH-REACHOUT_5466196/