Insights

In our last post, Better Care Management: A Performance Review, we presented summaries of our recent work with two major large-group clients. The piece showed big returns (as much as 5 to 1) from effective condition management and the hard work required to help individuals improve their lives. In today’s post and two more that will…

Over the past months, we used these pages to share insights on matters of interest and concern to health benefit plan leaders. We have described approaches for addressing complex, high-cost health problems, and reviewed the steps we walked with our plan participants to improve their lives and reduce their healthcare costs. We will do more…

Poor quality healthcare results from mistakes, such as mistaking healthcare for a commodity. Unlike sugar, gold, and other commodities, the units in healthcare are not equivalent. Healthcare systems may be labeled similarly, and share certain characteristics, and still be significantly different. The same can be said for healthcare providers and procedures—similar in some ways, but…

As the supply, complexity and cost of specialty drugs grows, health benefits leaders and other payers are adopting strategies to better manage the use of the drugs, increase their cost-effectiveness, and improve outcomes. Specialty pharmacy is the fastest growing cost segment in healthcare. According to the CVS Caremark annual Drug Trend Report, specialty medications accounted for…

Marie was not the ideal diabetic patient, given the hurdles she would have to overcome to get her condition under control. But with some expert help, and support from her family, she became a near perfect patient success. Marie is the fictional name given to an actual, real-life participant in Curally’s personalized program to improve employee…

Most of us know hypertension—high blood pressure—is one of the most common adverse health conditions affecting humankind. Over time, it can lead to chronic disease, catastrophic events, and even death. Most of us also know that hypertension can be prevented, or at least managed, to prevent catastrophic consequences. So why is unmanaged high blood pressure still…

The United States spends close to $4 trillion on medical care each year, and costs continue to rise. The recently published 2021 Milliman Medical Index projects an 8 percent increase in healthcare cost this year, based on Milliman’s model. A significant portion of this cost is paid for by employers. Roughly 155 million Americans receive their…

Specialty drugs can produce miraculous outcomes for patients, providers, and health benefits leaders alike. Specialty drugs are a challenge, a source of frustration for patients, providers, and health benefits leaders alike. That’s the interesting thing about specialty drugs. The relatively new class of therapies has, in many cases, kept workers alive and productive in the face of…

John didn’t know it, but his health was sliding dangerously close to the edge of a cliff. Once over the edge, there would be no going back. It was a point of no return, and a life of permanent sickness, high expense and dependency. Fortunately for John (which, for privacy protection, is not his real name),…

The conclusions of health benefits analysts are consistent: After a dip in 2020, health benefit costs are rising again, and trends are returning to pre-pandemic levels. That’s not the whole story, however. Something else has grown to such importance that, for many employers, it has become the imperative in defining their employee benefit plans in the post-pandemic…