Company Backgrounder
IHS Puts a Score on Personal Health – and the Bottom Line –
For Nation’s Employees, Workers
Location: Arlington Heights, IL.
Service Area: Nationwide.
Date Established: Interactive Health Solutions, Inc. (IHS) was founded in 1992. Today, IHS is the nation’s premier Population Health Management Company.
Client Profile: IHS works with more than 1,000 fully-insured and self-insured companies with one million+ total employees. Client companies nationwide range from firms with 100 to 50,000 employees.
Objective: IHS provides a HIPAA-compliant, turnkey health awareness and preventative care program for U.S. employers. It engages employees in a comprehensive process that stresses early detection, testing and aggressive follow-up before health problems take hold. In contrast to ‘one size fits all’ medical insurance plans that only benefit the sick, with no incentive for good health, adding the IHS program to existing medical plans allows companies to establish a performance-based system – rewarding individuals for healthy lifestyles.
High Cost of Unmanaged Conditions
• 75 percent of healthcare costs are preventable, while less than three percent of all healthcare dollars are spent on preventative practices, per the Centers for Disease Control.
• Estimates show that 20 percent of an employer’s staff is typically responsible for 80 percent of all healthcare costs.
• The remaining population usually falls into low or moderate risk health categories, but as each year passes, many will migrate to a higher risk, higher cost status.
The IHS program is inclusive, seeking to engage with an employer’s entire employee population throughout the year to help them get and stay healthy. The program encourages a “majority wins” process that rewards healthy employees who stay healthy, as well as at-risk employees who effectively address their conditions.
Scope of Service: The year-round IHS program includes annual clinical Health Evaluations, individualized health goals, support and telephonic health coaching, as well as full program administration, record keeping and reporting.
IHS employs a national staff of medical professionals (physicians, phlebotomists, counselors, nurses and others) that administer the tests, and who interact with participants and administer the program details.
Execution: IHS’ clinically-based preventative care program begins with an efficient means of getting people to start the prevention process. IHS performs Health Evaluations right on the job site. IHS also has a network of more than 3,000 testing facilities that employees can access (especially helpful to remote employees).
Within 48 hours, IHS reports results to each participant, and compiles a report of aggregate data for the employer, giving them a thumbnail sketch of their corporate health and well-being. Because IHS combines the clinical screenings with the participant’s medical history, results give an integrated -- and thereby more meaningful -- picture of an individual’s health.
Following the annual Health Evaluation, the year-round IHS program provides each participant with:
• An individualized health score (see Interactive Health Index) showing risk status
• Customized goals and recommended courses of action, based on age, sex, lifestyle, specific medical conditions and lab results
• Progress tools including printed, online and person-to-person support and counseling
• The opportunity to participate a free mid-year evaluation (including lab testing) to gauge their health progress
• Timely and proactive communication (for example, monthly emails to participants with abnormal conditions)
• Individual virtual medical files
• Access to IHS’ powerful health information website
• Access to IHS’ medical staff, which includes internists, cardiologists, psychologists and other highly qualified medical professionals
The Case for Preventative Care
In 16 years of conducting Health Evaluations, IHS has found some compelling commonalities between companies. Among typical employee populations:
• Approximately 58 percent of participants have at least one health problem that requires medical follow-up
• 23 percent assess at high risk for a heart attack or stroke
• 2-3 percent have a severe or potentially life-threatening issue
• Most abnormal conditions are newly-discovered for the participant
Methodology: IHS uses its proprietary Interactive Health Index (IHI) metric to measure personal health status, and identify areas for improvement. At the employers’ discretion, employees who meet their goals can receive rewards.
How the IHI works:
• Extensive blood analyses are completed during the annual Health Evaluation.
• Using national standards for risk factors such as heart disease, diabetes, smoking, etc., participants are scored on each risk factor to create a cumulative, personal index – the IHI.
• For participants with risk factors that need improvement, IHS assigns a reasonable and achievable IHI goal to achieve by the next year.
• IHS designs a customized course of action and provides various tools and support on an ongoing, proactive basis.
• IHS can provide the employer with a HIPAA compliant listing of all employees who met their IHI goal if the employer has an incentive program in place.
Outcomes: The IHS program has multiple impacts on business performance:
• Lower Health Care Costs: Employers can save thousands of dollars per year per employee in premium and treatment costs if potential diseases are found and managed while patients are still in low-risk health categories. A recently completed 2007 study* by Zoe Consulting compared people who did not participate in the IHS program to people who did participate – the study followed both groups over a 30-month period.
* Study conducted for IHS by Zoe Consulting, Inc., Catawba, SC. The Study included 55,000 people
The non-participant group’s actual annual medical costs grew by 9.6%. The group of participants in the IHS’ Population Health Management Program showed annual medical cost growth of only 4.3%. The IHS program reduced the medical expense growth rate by 55.0%.
In addition, IHS calculates that the 2007 award winners spend, on average, $2,850 less per employee per year in medical costs than non-award winners.
• Improved productivity, the real iceberg of healthcare costs.
• Lower workers compensation costs.
• An additional benefit for employees.
• A culture that encourages good health.
Healthy Results
An independent research group recently released some eye-popping results for companies using IHS’ HIPAA compliance program:
• 81 percent of participants hit their goals and maintained incentives
• 84 percent stayed in no- or low-risk category
• 45 percent of high-risk employees moved to low-risk
• 41 percent of smokers QUIT SMOKING
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Editor’s Note:
For further details, please contact:
Joseph O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer, IHS, (847)754-2712 or jobrien@interactivehs.com