What’s Next for Well-Being | Part 1: From Silos to Seamless

What will the next generation of 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 might only include 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. About 80 percent of American businesses with more than 50 employees offer some kind of corporate wellness program. [1]

Despite these advances, however, almost all well-being programs (Staying Healthy) exist as a separate entity outside the healthcare system (Getting Care). That’s because well-being programs and the healthcare system operate, for the most part, in two 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 health. It is largely their responsibility to provide the impetus, motivation and encouragement that ensures 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 Solution

Well-being is just one part of a person’s overall health journey. It needs to be connected to that part of a person’s health narrative when they receive medical care. At Pager, we’ve addressed this issue head-on for health plans. 

Stay Healthy, our comprehensive well-being program, builds an ongoing relationship with your members, educating and motivating them to live a lifetime of good health. By providing a personalized journey for each individual, we create a step-by-step experience that leads to improved well-being, helping each and every person determine The Next Right Thing To Do in their health journey. 

Then, when a person needs medical care, they can seamlessly connect to Find Care, our Care Navigation service that guides the patient to the most appropriate level of care. And when their treatment is completed, their personalized Stay Healthy program provides the tools, support and motivation to optimize their follow-up care. 

This kind of seamless healthcare experience has produced the following results. 

•  40% Reduction in ER Readmissions

• 64% Improvement in Medication Adherence

• 70% of Encounters were Navigated to Lower Cost Care

• 88 Average NPS Score

• $210 Savings per Clinical Encounter

See for yourself how Pager’s end-to-end connected care experience is transforming healthcare and realizing new efficiencies. Contact us today for a free demo.

[1] Meteorite. (2022, March 2). Forbes EQ Brandvoice: Why Community Health is the next frontier in Workplace Wellness. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeseq/2022/01/28/why-community-health-is-the-next-frontier-in-workplace-wellness/?sh=4898a6355712 

[2] Jennifer Kim, P. (2018, January 19). Medication adherence: The elephant in the room. U.S. Pharmacist – The Leading Journal in Pharmacy. https://shar.es/afV3H9 

[3] Brody, J. E. (2017, April 17). The cost of not taking your medicine. The New York Times.

[4] Transitions of care. NCQA. (2023, January 23). https://www.ncqa.org/hedis/measures/transitions-of-care/ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/17/well/the-cost-of-not-taking-your-medicine.html 

[5] Paavola, A. (n.d.). Unnecessary ER visits cost $47B a year, report finds. Becker’s Hospital Review.