Archive | August, 2007

Calls vs. Letters

August 9, 2007 by George Van Antwerp 0 Comments

The more I learn about automated call technology the more I wonder why people don’t use it as much as letters.  Obviously, there are telemarketing laws.  And, I think many people think of calls as only being done by humans and being expensive.

But, imagine the following differences and benefits:

  1. Lower cost then letters
  2. Able to customize the messaging (think e-mail personalization)
  3. Able to change your campaign real-time (i.e., our response rate is lower than expected, let’s change the messaging to say this)
  4. Able to track lots of data – who picks up, when they pick up, how much of the message they listen to
  5. Able to collect data immediately
  6. Able to interact with the participant (e.g., give me your BMI…that is 10% higher than last time…are you following your diet)

Obviously, e-mail is the cheapest medium, but our culture is rapidly becoming overwhelmed with e-mail.  You have some of the same benefits, but you can’t modify during the interaction.  And, in healthcare, there is limited information you can push to a patient.  In most cases, you are asking them to click through a link to go to a secure website to receive information.  With letters, you assume it is secure since it is addressed to them.  With automated calls, you have them verify who they are based on a few points of reference (name, DOB, member ID).

Consumerism, Healthcare, Marketing / Communications

Cultural Communications

August 9, 2007 by George Van Antwerp 0 Comments

In the spirit of advocating for the patient, I think one of the key things missing at many companies is culturally specific communications.  The simplest solution here is multi-lingual.  Now that nearly 1 in 10 counties in the US have a majority of minorities, this is important (USA Today 8/9/07).

Of course, I always hear the question back of how do I track this.  Will people self-identify into a cultural group?  It depends.  Do you have anything to offer them?  Can you articulate value to them?

If I speak a different language as my primary language and you offer me communications in my native tongue, I would likely be happy to request it.  Can you track it when I request it?  Aquent appears to be a company focused on this within the healthcare space.

This can also manifest itself in color selection.  For different cultures, a certain color can mean different things which might affect your brochure creation.  (see article)   Of course, you need to be able to do mass customization of your brochure rather than print 7M in one run.

With hispanics expected to represent 21% of the US population by 2020, it will be important to understand this segment and how to communicate with them.  Here is a good article on this.  I have seen studies that show they respond at a higher rate than other segments to both letters and direct calls.  Shouldn’t that be important?

The point here is that if you really care about the patient and their health wouldn’t you want to push information to them in a language they care about; using colors that evoke action and emotion; and using words and frameworks that they understand.

Consumerism, Healthcare, Leadership, Marketing / Communications

Data Sources

August 7, 2007 by George Van Antwerp 0 Comments

There are a few places that I always go for information.  I thought I would share them:

  1. For general Rx data, I use the NACDS website.
  2. For prescription trend information, the PBMs have good trend reports.  I helped with ESI’s report so I know it well, but Medco and Caremark also put out good reports.
  3. General government health data
  4. Rand
  5. Kaiser Foundation
  6. CDC (e.g., publication)
  7. RevolutionHealth or WebMd (e.g., look at this scary obesity chart)
  8. DrugDigest
  9. Consumer Reports on Prescriptions

More to come, but I found myself going to the same site multiple times today and jotted down a few URLs that I find as common tools.

Healthcare

Organs and Medical Tourism

August 7, 2007 by George Van Antwerp 4 Comments

I find the whole concept of Medical Tourism fascinating.  The fact that it can be less expensive for someone in the US to fly to a foreign country and get an operation done is logical while also amazing.  When I was trying my start-up, one of my board members had a friend raising $2B to develop a medical center in Asia to bring people there for long-term surgery and recovery periods.

Business 2.0 had an article about medical tourism that predicted it would be a $40B market by 2010.  A great opportunity?

Example from the article “GlobalChoice sent a patient to Punjab for a hip replacement that cost about $13,000, including airfare and a 20-day hotel stay. The estimated cost in the United States for the surgery alone? $40,000.”

I also found it interesting in a April 2007 Wired article called “Organs for Sale” to see the prices for transplants overseas (with much higher availability also).

  • $15,000 – $145,000 for a kidney
  • $150,000 – $290,000 for a lung
  • $25,000 – $290,000 for a liver
  • $110,000 – $140,000 for a pancreas
  • $90,000 – $290,000 for a heart

My key point with blog (other than just interest) is that there is a market for companies to provide these services, insure the patient, manage the quality of care, and offer incentives (even for insured people) to get this care.

Healthcare

Clothes for Wellness

August 6, 2007 by George Van Antwerp 0 Comments

So what does BodyMedia have in mind…If you read this article from a few years ago, I think they are on to something.  Can you put sensors in people’s clothes without changing the comfort of the clothes – probably?  Can you link those sensors to data driven models to help drive behavior – sure?  Will people wear the clothes, use the data, and change behavior – who knows?

The concept is right.  Embedding technology into everything we do and using that data to push information to us at the right time is critical to changing behavior and driving technology enabled wellness.  I love the picture below of their reporting.  I get this from my GPS watch.  I definitely intend to learn more about what they are doing.

Consumerism, Healthcare, Innovation

Wellness Incentives

August 6, 2007 by George Van Antwerp 0 Comments

Can incentives actually drive wellness? Why not? Why?

Incentives are powerful tools once you understand the healthcare consumer and how they react. Is the incentive a lower copay? Is it a free service? Lots of interesting models are going to come up. It has worked in other industries but can it work here.

I think a lot will depend on the segment of the market and what you are asking them to do. A old person (i.e., a MD worshipper) is unlikely to challenge their doctor and push for certain action. A younger person in good health (i.e., a Living for Today) is unlikely to respond to messaging about pre-screening and general check-ups.

Here are a couple of the things out there:

Another model which will be interesting is existing companies like Maritz which do loyalty programs and incentive programs for other industries.  As they apply their skills to the healthcare market, it should allow this to take off faster.

Consumerism, Healthcare, Innovation

Prescribing Information (Ix)

August 3, 2007 by George Van Antwerp 0 Comments

I think the Information Therapy concept is a great way to think about consumerism and information in the healthcare space.  I was recently reviewing a presentation by Healthwise which pointed out 3 Simple Rules:

  1. Self Care Rule – helping people do as much for themselves as possible
  2. Guideline Rule – helping people ask for the care they need…giving them the guidelines
  3. Veto Rule – helping people say “no” to care they don’t need

Another place where you can learn more about this concept is at the Center for Information Therapy.  From a health plan perspective, here is one of their white papers which will help you begin to conceptualize this.

The key here is that we should be able to use data to trigger information events that are personalized to people.  This obviously needs to be actionable information that is in a format and uses terminology that patients can understand.  There is a huge difference between data and information.  Lots of data is sent to patients along with a typical “barfing” of information with no context or prioritization.

It is a great opportunity.  Lots of healthplans and consumer sites are embracing this.  As this gets refined and becomes mainstream, it can help drive wellness and a change in ownership for healthcare where consumers really feel responsible and can act responsibly for their care.

You can also look at Josh’s blog for more ongoing dialogue.

Business Tools, Consumerism, Healthcare, Weblogs

Web 2.0 – Healthcare

August 2, 2007 by George Van Antwerp 0 Comments

Rather than recreate this, I liked John’s list of sites from a meeting at work. Got to his blog to see the list of links for Web 2.0 sites around healthcare.

As we all know, technology is changing every industry. Healthcare will be no different. It will be fascinating as new generations of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and others who have grown up around web technology become the leaders of our companies.

I can still remember in the late 90s presenting to a healthplan CEO about creating an e-business strategy for him only to find out that he didn’t even use a PC.

Healthcare, Weblogs

Healthcare Blogs

August 2, 2007 by George Van Antwerp 0 Comments

What a list!  I just came across the list of top Healthcare Blogs.  I am not on there yet, but I just submitted myself to be tracked.  This is a great resource for those of you that get lots of feeds or use Google Reader to track blogs.

Business Tools, Healthcare, Weblogs

URAC PBM Accredidation

August 2, 2007 by George Van Antwerp 4 Comments

So, URAC has decided to focus on accrediting PBMs. This caught my eye especially when one of the press releases I saw mentioned communications. With 70% of Americans receiving their pharmacy benefits through PBMs, perhaps this could have an impact. If you go look at the expectations for accreditation, I saw several interesting things:

  1. There has to be a continuous improvement plan around quality (is that Six Sigma, Lean, BPM, or just a general plan?)…any option is good.
  2. Does the PBM have the capability to disclose and educate members on costs and optimizing their benefit? (what about whether they do it…but key capability)
  3. Is the member information at the right reading level and culturally sensitive? It would seem like you would want to require at least some multi-lingual capabilities in letters or via the call center.
  4. How is over / under utilization monitored? Does this mean how do they drive compliance which is very complicated…but again a good objective?
  5. Does the PBM have a medication therapy management (MTM) process? WOW. This would be great to offer beyond the Medicare Part D. Expensive to help members manage their total set of drugs and provide counseling from a pharmacist.

Overall, I think it has the right objectives. A lot of it is dependent upon communications. How does the PBM mine their information? When and how should they communicate with patients? What information do they push to them? What information do they provide for them? What channels do they use? How do they make a difference?

If taken to the next level, this could be a huge driver of consumerism in the pharmacy space by giving “points” (i.e., accreditation) to those that do it. Hopefully, it is more than simply having the ability to do it, but actually executing successfully on that capability. Then, some of the work I have been doing around data mining, optimization, and channel management of communications will be critical path.

Consumerism, Healthcare

Genomics and Personalized Shoes

August 1, 2007 by George Van Antwerp 0 Comments

A product of one is something that is starting to become a reality.  You have been able to get clothes tailored to your specific body shape for years, but only at the high end locations or overseas.  You are now starting to see mass customization of shoes, jeans, and other items.

At the same time, we have the whole field of genomics which could lead to personalized prescriptions that are customized to your specific condition, genes, and other parameters.

So, with all of this technology available, why can’t we get mass produced health benefits that are customized to the individual and based on their income, family history, personal medical situation, etc.  It would seem possible to say to someone that based on their medical history and family history they are likely to spend $X the following year.  In addition, people of their similar age and geography have a Y probability of getting injured.  Therefore, based on their family and economic status, this is the right plan to minimize their out-of-pocket dollars while managing their probability of a catastrophic health event.

I am sure there is a reason, but I would love to see someone try.  Just a thought.  I saw an advertisement this morning about personalized shoes and began to wonder why we can’t personalize people’s health benefits.   And, I don’t mean simply the ability to buy a pre-defined healthcare plan as an individual, but the ability to provide inputs which custom designs a plan for you using some predictive intelligence.

Consumerism, Healthcare, Innovation
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