What’s Next for Well-Being | Part 1: From Silos to Seamless
What will the next generation of health and well-being programs look like? How will they perform and function? What new technologies, services and systems will be developed and leveraged to improve the well-being experience and increase engagement? Those are the questions we will be addressing in this four-part blog series, What’s Next for Well-being.
In Part 1, we examine the importance of integrating well-being programs into the healthcare system to create a seamless and connected consumer experience.
Healthcare’s Greatest Gap
The modern corporate well-being program has evolved significantly since its beginning in the 1980s. Back then, well-being programs typically only included health education programs and a few group aerobic classes. Today, participants in well-being programs are offered mobile apps, customized incentives and rewards, corporate and individual health challenges, digital exercise trackers, and a personalized experience to varying degrees. About 80 percent of American businesses with more than 50 employees offer some kind of corporate wellness program.¹
Despite these advances, well-being programs exist as a separate entity outside the healthcare system – which is to say these two components, i.e., health and well-being, remain in disconnected silos. There is no continuum that connects these two “systems of care” to create a seamless and unified patient experience. So, what happens when the inevitable occurs and someone participating in a well-being program needs medical care? That person must now “exit” from the well-being program to access and then navigate the complexities of the healthcare system almost entirely on their own. And the same is true after patients are “officially” discharged from the healthcare system. For the most part, they are left to their own devices to manage their ongoing health and well-being. It is largely up to them to ensure their follow-up care is effective.
The High Cost of Fragmentation
The economic consequences caused by this fragmented healthcare system are severe and significant. Here are just three examples.
Medication Non-Adherence
Scenario: Patients don’t receive ongoing encouragement and support to stick with their treatment plan. Because of this lack of follow-up care, patients often forget the clinical importance of taking their medication.
Result: 25% of hospitalizations each year are related to medication non-adherence.² Up to 30% of new prescriptions, including those for diabetes and high blood pressure, go unfilled.³
Care Navigation
Scenario: Patients become confused and frustrated when they try to navigate the complexities of the American healthcare system.
Result: Up to $45B in unnecessary healthcare spending stems from inadequate care coordination and poor care transitions.⁴
Unnecessary ER Utilization
Scenario: Patients don’t know how to properly manage a condition and/or can’t determine what level of care they need when an urgent medical need occurs or complications arise.
Result: Patients default to the most costly options—the ER or Urgent Care— generating $47 billion annually in unnecessary costs.⁵
The Pager Health Solution
Well-being is just one part of a person’s overall health journey. At Pager Health, our connected health platform is a holistic solution that seamlessly blends personalized clinical support, innovative wellness services, and contextual plan navigation to provide “no wrong door,” secure access to the care members need – when they need it.
Our Well Care solutions include a unique well-being program for each member, with personalized clinical touch points that guide them toward better health. Our approach helps individuals discover the “Next Right Thing to Do” for their health journey.
Pager Health is moving the healthcare industry beyond siloed care teams and a disconnected care experience by creating a new level of digital unity. We are delivering an industry first: a personalized, connected care experience that proactively engages members across the entire continuum of care and throughout their entire health journey, all on a single platform.
The results:
89 NPS Score (highest in the industry)
$211 savings per encounter
64% increase in medication adherence
66% emergency room/urgent care avoidance
See for yourself how Pager Health is powering connected healthcare. Book your demo.
¹ Meteorite. (2022, March 2). Forbes EQ Brandvoice: Why Community Health is the next frontier in Workplace Wellness. Forbes.
² Jennifer Kim, P. (2018, January 19). Medication adherence: The elephant in the room. U.S. Pharmacist – The Leading Journal in Pharmacy.
³ Brody, J. E. (2017, April 17). The cost of not taking your medicine. The New York Times.
⁴ NCQA. (2023, January 23). Transitions of Care.
⁵ Paavola, A. (n.d.). Unnecessary ER visits cost $47B a year, report finds. Becker’s Hospital Review.
