Data is everywhere and it is used to determine tomorrow’s future. It is collected to determine the next fashion trends or what Netflix show is suggested for you. Medical data is also everywhere. You can find it in your smart watch, your explanation of benefits (EOB) from your health care provider or in the electronic records kept by your primary care physician. But is data transparency everywhere? Do we as consumers understand what we need to know about our own medical data and how to affect change?
When COVID entered our lives, it had us all start looking at medical data. What are the trends of this virus? How many people are affected near me? What conditions do I have that put me more at risk? It opened a typical consumers eye to their own health status that they may have been overlooking before COVID.
Most tools look at past data wishing we could change what has happened. However, McConkey’s Data Analytics team uses a Health Intelligence Tool called Springbuk to take what happened in the past to plan for tomorrow. There is so much medical data at our fingertips. We use that data to provide a clear direction to our clients and ultimately their consumers of health care, employees on the plan. We want their employees to be engaged in the care of their own health conditions. Data allows us to determine the cause of problems more effectively. It allows our clients to understand what they need to do to better benefit their employees.
Our analytics team dives into the data of those employees diagnosed with chronic conditions. These are health conditions that require ongoing management over an extended period such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Chronic conditions, left untreated, can be some of the costliest conditions to employers. We evaluate the compliance rates and determine who is adhering to the care guidelines associated with these conditions. We then work with a third party to offer guidance and programs in managing and preventing these conditions going forward.
At McConkey, we also use Springbuk’s platform to forecast the risk of certain conditions. Employees forecasted at-risk are identified based on a Springbuk event detection algorithm using available claims data. The algorithm identifies employees at-risk based on previous claim cost patterns. McConkey then provides tools to help employees identify themselves using outreach education, targeted wellness and chronic condition management programs. Our goal is to prevent and mitigate risk at the onset.
McConkey wants to help our clients and their employees in a culture of engagement with our findings in the data. This is more than checking off a box of things to do. It is much bigger – it is about their employee’s wellbeing. Creating a partnership in health with employees not only helps to reduce future claims costs, but it also increases productivity, decreases absenteeism and illustrates to employees that their health and wellbeing is a priority for the organization. Healthy minds and bodies are the catalyst to a successful working environment. Engagement is important for success.
There are three keys to successful mitigation of claims costs in the future: data transparency, collaboration between McConkey and the client and engagement between the client and employee. McConkey is not looking to provide more data, we are looking to provide better direction. We want to use our findings to help create a better future for our clients and their employees using data with Direction, Collaboration & Engagement.
