Healthy Behavior

I was reading a blog by the CEO of Harvard Pilgrim earlier and found the point below pretty interesting:

50% of health status is determined by healthy behavior. 4% of health care spending supports healthy behavior.

I think it leads to a critical issue which we all face (patients, providers, insurers) in healthcare which is how to drive healthy behavior.  Ideally, we would want to understand and have visibility to actions that could lead down the wrong path.

Not all very realistic, but imagine:

• Buying groceries that aren’t good for you triggering a message.
• Stopping at a fast food restaurant for drive-thru triggering a message using RFID or Bluetooth technology.
• A reminder in your car before you leave for work that you need to take your prescription.
• Exercise reminders pushed into your Outlook and linked to an online analysis tool.
• Genetic based testing suggestions linked to a home based device which tracks blood pressure, blood sugar, and other key metrics.

I am sure there are a lot of innovative ideas, but the point here is that we need to think about how to create opt-in communication options or online tools or devices that integrate non-claims data with health suggestions to figure out how to prevent treatment.