Health IT, Payers

Let me help you help me help you: How payers are using technology to boost engagement

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UnitedHealth’s acquisition play for Audax Health is the latest in a series of efforts by payers to develop consumer technology in-house, through acquisition or strategic partnerships to help members do a better job of managing their own health, Jerry McGuire notwithstanding.

Audax’s Zensey platform provides a way to collect health data in one place and sync it from fitness trackers like FitBit. It also has a social component to ask questions anonymously and a gaming component in which users can set health and fitness challenges for themselves and compete against friends and colleagues. These motivational tools to inspire healthy behavior reflect a new trend, particularly among the largest payers. They are  moving away from fragmented approaches to health and fitness, biometric tracking, goal setting and social interaction and combine them in one network. It’s one of several highlighted by Chilmark Research in its benchmark report on payer adoption of consumer technology.

Taking this approach helps payers accomplish a few different things. It’s part of an evolution of health insurers as they compete for more customers through the health insurance exchanges, especially young and middle-aged customers who are comfortable with digital technology. The digital technology rolled up in these networks is being used in part as a marketing strategy and as a way to better engage people in managing their health. It also helps payers with their population health management strategy, by helping members collect and sync their health and fitness data as part of a population health strategy in which payers are more closely aligned with providers. The Chilmark report also points out that wellness programs that are covered under Medicare Advantage and MediGap plans encourage investment in digital consumer technologies.

EveryMove produced a chart ranking 100 health insurers by how well they “empower individuals to improve their health,” with Cigna topping the list.

Cigna has done a few different things in the way of applying consumer technology in the name of helping members manage their conditions. Last year, it began to set up its GO YOU app marketplace to integrate tracking devices, social networks, and other digital tools into a single engagement strategy.  It worked with HopeLabs to make the gaming tool it developed to help remind pediatric cancer patients to take their medications (available for Android and iOS). It’s also offering MyFitnessPal to its members.

Aetna’s CarePass platform helps members integrate their apps and track performance based on the goals they set. It has a Get Active! online program created by digital health company Shape Up. It uses exercise and diet trackers and encourages competition between users.

Last year, Humana acquired assets of Boston-based engagement company Healthrageous to bolster its Vitality platform. Humana Vitality integrates several different activity and biometric tracking devices such as Fitbit devices, Polar heart rate monitors, and apps such as Nike+ and Humana’s Fit apps for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.

Kaiser Permanente is also developing an interchange that will allow users to aggregate self-tracking data with an eye to getting that data to its providers, according to Chilmark.

KaiserPermanente and UnitedHealth are also working with Welltok’s CafeWell — an interesting platform powered by IBM Watson. It recently added  a wide variety of partners as part of a program that not only includes health tracking devices and mobile applications such as MapMyFitness, but also patient communities such as Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America. It also has added condition management and wellness programs initially for COPD through Propeller Health, prenatal care through Wildflower Health and a depression program through Brain Resource.

The potential for payers to use these networks to attract new customers, retain members and fulfill the ambitious goals they have set remains to be seen. It’s a logical approach to organizing the consumer technology that payers have cultivated. The toughest challenge I see will be for these networks to make a difference in how users with chronic conditions manage their health, which is a priority for most payers and providers.  I think it will provide a compelling selling tool for employers, especially ones with a lot of young and middle-aged staff. Still, the cost of their plans will be the front-of-mind concern among payers’ potential customers. It will be especially intriguing to see if this approach by payers succeeds in attracting the young invincibles that are critical to making healthcare reform work.

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