It is important for employers to ensure their employees are informed about and actively utilizing available healthcare benefits to provide a beneficial and cost-effective healthcare plan.
With this in mind, we invited Dr. Jason Chirichigno and Jake Coniglio from Galileo to join Captive Resources’ Maddison Bezdicek and Mike Van Ham in our recent Health Risk Management webinar to discuss how employers can drive employee healthcare engagement.
Continue reading for a recap of their presentation.
According to Bezdicek and Van Ham, there are several reasons employee healthcare engagement is vital to successful healthcare plans, most of which relate back to consistent primary care.
Prevention and Early Detection:
Employees who understand the importance of prevention and early detection have 20% lower mortality rates from preventable conditions through regular primary care engagement.
Chronic Disease Management:
Chronic condition patients who engage in regular primary care relationships have 51% lower healthcare costs than those who do not.
Continuity of Care:
Patients with high continuity of care have 12% fewer hospitalizations and 15% fewer emergency room visits.
Mental Health Integration:
Up to 70% of patients with mental health issues present first in primary care settings.
Cost Containment:
Employees who regularly engage in primary care yield lower costs than employees who do not. In fact, for every $1.00 spent on primary care, $13.00 is saved in downstream healthcare costs.
High costs, language barriers, and accessibility issues are just a few of the barriers patients face in the healthcare system today.
Chirichigno, Coniglio, and their team at Galileo are addressing these barriers by taking a new approach to healthcare through digital medical practices. According to Chirichigno and Coniglio, below are some of the advantages of digital medical practices.
From primary to specialty care, patients work with a tightly managed, integrated clinical team, which prevents confusion and frustration and allows for continuity of care.
Patients experience seamless, digitally coordinated care. Using technology platforms, patients can consult with medical experts and request lab tests, referrals, and medication — all virtually and on their timeline.
A virtually-coordinated patient experience supports holistic care. According to Coniglio, 90% of care can be solved virtually, and only 10% needs in-person facilitation.
Patients receive proactive care from providers who are actively engaged in their healthcare plan. Check-ins and maintenance are all done within a technology platform to provide a streamlined experience.
Digital medical practices are focused on improving patient engagement, quality of care, and total cost of care, aiming to redefine how healthcare is approached.
For healthcare benefits to be effective, employers must communicate with employees how to access and utilize their benefits properly.
According to Coniglio, there are a few things employers can do to transform employee healthcare engagement:
Coniglio encouraged employers to use effective communication methods for their employee base. For example, in-person communication may be more effective than email for some organizations.
Employers should educate employees on the importance of continuous care, including:
Employers should regularly educate employees on how to utilize their benefits, including:
To learn more about Galileo, please contact our team or visit Galileo’s website.
This presentation was part of Captive Resources’ Medical Stop Loss Webinar Series — regular installments of webinars to educate medical stop loss group captive members. The thoughts and opinions expressed in these webinars are those of the presenters and do not necessarily reflect Captive Resources’ positions on any of the above topics.
