Enabling Healthy Decisions

I have a whole pile of articles that I’ve meant to blog about. I’m going to try to clear out some of these with a bunch of quick mentions here.

USA Today Gallup Poll (7/14/09)

• Majority say controlling costs should be legislation’s top goal regarding healthcare, but more than 9 in 10 oppose limits on getting whatever tests or treatments they and their doctors think are necessary.
• 26% of those polled say that Congress passing a major health care reform bill this year is extremely important – 24% say it’s very important; 22% somewhat important; and 25% say not important.

Google Rolls Out Google Voice

• You can use one new phone number to tie together your various numbers – cell phone, home phone, and business line.
• People call one number which rings all the numbers. You can switch back and forth between lines. Voicemail flows to all of the phones and you get free transcription.

Linguistic Profiling (Washington University alumni magazine, Summer 2009)

• Interesting article on the work by John Baugh, professor of psychology, linguistics, English, education, and anthropology.
• He first documented the “discrimination based on the sound of someone’s voice”.

Article “A Battle Over Mail Order Drugs” (Boston Globe, 2/2/09)

• Owners of mail-service pharmacies (i.e., PBMs) say Medicare could save billions if more people used mail. Right now it’s only 10% of all Medicare recipients who use mail according to the PCMA.
  • The PBMs estimate that the savings is $1B over 10 years for every 1% of patients that move to mail…or $40B over the next decade.
• Community pharmacists see mail orders as “shady operations”.
• David Snow, CEO of Medco, says about PBMs – “The real truth is, we’re an intensive clinical company with thousands of pharmacists who take care of patients each and every day in a very advanced way.”

Good article “The Importance Of Deciphering Your Insurance” (WSJ, 6/4/09)

• The most surprising statement in the article – “researchers at Georgetown University found that several health plans required consumers to inform the insurers when they reached their out-of-pocket totals.” Is that really possible??

Article “Depression, Anxiety Pass From Parents To Kids” (USA Today, 6/3/09)

• Group therapy was able to break the cycle.
• Depressed children are more likely to have trouble in school and are at increased risk for suicide or substance abuse.

Article “Conflicts Of Interest Bedevil Drug Research” (USA Today, 6/3/09)

• Good discussion with some specific examples about the people who evaluate criteria for when drugs should be used and their ties with the companies that manufacture the drugs.

Article “Layoffs Cost More Than You Think” (Fortune, 3/30/09)

• Good reminder of some of the additional costs of laying people off.
  • Brand equity costs
  • Leadership costs
  • Morale costs
  • Wall street costs
  • Rehiring costs
• One of my early consulting projects looked at this years ago and it was amazing how much it cost also looking at lost productivity as you ramped up a new hire.

A perfect example of one of the big issues with healthcare reform.

We all know that hospital readmissions is an issue.  We have been working with several clients to address this issue.

I called a few senior people in some hospital systems to talk about it.  I think one of their responses summarized it up nicely:

It’s not something we are focused on.  We still make positive contribution margin on these readmissions.

As many people have pointed out, misaligned incentives make it hard to improve the system.

I’ve just begun reading and thinking through the book Predictably Irrational.  So far, I’ve found it fascinating.  Additionally, for those of you without the time to read, I’d recommend following Dan Ariely’s blog.

One of his posts from last month is interesting and lays out three ways that conceptual consumption affects people’s physical consumption (and provides a link to the details on the research):

1. Consuming expectations
2. Consuming goals
3. Consuming memories

I think this area of behavioral economics is critical to Enabling Healthy Decisions (SM).  Since in most cases, we already have a framework or anchor price for our healthcare it becomes increasingly challenging to reframe the issue and change behavior.  But, these insights around peer pressure and message framing that evoke different memories or emotions are significant insights for us in the communication space.

One area where healthcare has definitely lagged other industries like consumer products and financial services has been in the area of analytics. Silverlink Communications is the first company to bring analytics to the area of healthcare communications.

We have been doing this for years and focus on the different ways to use analytics to improve results. This is not simply custom reporting which is what lots of people mean when they talk about analytics. And, it’s a lot more than simply best practices like co-branded communications (i.e., employer plus health plan) work better than communications simply from a health plan to a member (patient / consumer).

Interested in learning more…We are hosting a webinar series this month that might interest you. The first one is tomorrow.

It includes Stephen Baker who wrote The Numerati; Kinney Zalesne who wrote Microtrends; and Tom Davenport who wrote Competing on Analytics. You can register here.

If you enjoy this topic, I would also encourage you to register and read our white paper on Adaptive HealthComm Science (which is what we call our approach to healthcare analytics for communications). We also have a video on engaging consumers in their healthcare. Both can be found at the bottom of our homepage at www.silverlink.com.

I hope you all had a good Fourth of July. One thing I always think about this time of year is my perception of fireworks. I’ve never been a big fan.

Of course, like most young boys, I had my fascination with fireworks, but after two incidents, I began to view them as more dangerous.

When I was about 10, I had a pack of firecrackers go off right near my ear just as I threw them. Then, in high school, I remember watching bottle rockets hit someone’s house and worrying about it catching fire (which it didn’t).

Why should you care (this is a health care blog – right)?

I think it’s important because our frameworks about going to the doctor, going to the dentist, eating healthy, exercising, preventative care, and so many other things are set in place as we grow up. As a parent, you need to think about the example you are creating. As a communicator to the patient later in life, you need to think about what their attitudes are towards health.

According to the latest research from a Kaiser Health Tracking Poll of 634 respondents from June 1-8^th:

Since, I strongly believe responses are biased by context, I wonder how many people respond that way when they realize that they will be pushed to this plan. [The Lewin Group estimates that as many as 118.5M people (2/3rds of those who have insurance today) would be shifted to public coverage.]