Insights

This year, the National Breast Cancer Foundation estimates that nearly 339,000 women and 2,710 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer. It is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the US. For the thousands of women and men afflicted with breast cancer, and many other diseases, the key to survival may…

Continuing our Top Five series with Curally Chief Medical Officer Ernie Vesta, MD, today we review the most common responses from Curally professionals to plan participants with health concerns. Our goals in this series, as we shared previously, are to help health benefit plan leaders consider their own programs and to illuminate further how Curally…

Continuing our Top Five series with Curally Chief Medical Officer Ernie Vesta, MD, today we review the most expensive health conditions identified by Dr. Vesta and his team in working with large group health benefit plans. Our goals, as we shared previously, are to help health benefit plan leaders consider their own plans and programs…

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…