By Lisa M Holland, RN MBA and Gregory J Hummer, MD
The most important observation to be made about the state of America’s health is that individuals must begin to take accountability and responsibility for their personal health in order to achieve financial wellness. If Americans continue to relinquish control of their health to a “broken” healthcare system thinking that they will achieve guaranteed affordable healthcare because they are entitled to it, then they are giving up a chance of achieving real health and financial well-being.
You MUST take responsibility for your health if only because your health and future financial security is much too important to be entrusted to anyone else. Today, more than ever, it no longer makes sense to recommend that you “should” be responsible for your health. Now there is just no other alternative. No one should have the ability to control your healthcare decision making except YOU. After all, it is your body and your life, so doesn’t it make sense that choices be made by you. Of course you should seek care advice from credible and quality healthcare resources. In fact, today’s Consumer Directed Health Plans (CDHP)offer individual’s a variety of healthcare transparency tools to assist them in making the most cost-effective decisions offering ultimate control of their personal health and financial wealth.
Accountability + Responsibility + Consumer Transparency Tools = Financial Wellness
Too often, we as consumers do not realize that our healthcare decisions are being made for us even before we opt into a benefit plan design from our employer. Employees allow employers to take responsibility for the type of benefit plan offered and never even think to ask “is there anything better?” Employees need to begin to challenge their employers and ask for consumer directed benefit plans that will allow them to take full responsibility for their health so that employees can make the right decisions about their health, improve their overall well-being and reap the financial rewards of good health.
A best in class, comprehensive full replacement CDHP benefit plan would reside on a superior technology platform that provides all of the tools and resources required to become a responsible and accountable consumer of health. That CDHP solution would offer a three step technology platform that would start off with an employee health calculator; lead into an effective wellness program and have as the core a system that merges banking into the claims system. The employee calculator provides financial forecasting about how much (in real dollars) an individual’s current health habits are costing; provides the ability to set goals to track changes in behavior and ultimately financial well-being; turning current health into future wealth for retirement. The wellness program is then sought after and engaged in order to change behavior while the CDHP platform integrates the entire spectrum of tools on an easy to use employee, employer and provider portal.
Let’s take a look at John, age 42 who works for Company ABC. He decides to become responsible for his own health and elects to participate in the CDHP/HSA program with a $3,050 deductible. His employer uses the ERISA rules to their advantage and assists John with his HSA savings and mandates that John invest $150.00 via a cafeteria 125 into his HSA each month. Company ABC also offers a robust wellness program that is fully integrated with the CDHP plan promoting optimal health with programs to assist John with quitting his tobacco habit. In addition, John utilizes one of the programs transparency tools (Health Index Calculator) to learn that his 2 pack a day tobacco habit is currently costing him $6,504 a year after tax with a yearly work absence of 6 days and a productivity loss of $1,760 dollars. The tobacco habit cost is twice his deductible. John uses the calculator to help him visualize his savings if he quits his tobacco habit. By quitting now, at retirement he will have an extra $215,404 dollars saved if annuitized at 3% compounded monthly with a total tax savings of just over $68,929 dollars. John takes responsibility for his health and immediately enrolls in the company sponsored tobacco cessation program to quit smoking, improve his health and increase his financial wellness. At this point, John has realized that he has always had the ability to take responsibility for his health he just never had the benefit plan, tools and resources to truly empower him to be a conscientious healthcare consumer. If John was also over-weight with a BMI of 29 and decided to lose weight to a BMI of 24, he would save an additional $169,661 dollars with a tax savings of $54,291 dollars for a total savings of $385,065 dollars. Economics, more than any other driver, is the key to changing unhealthy behaviors.
Most individuals probably under estimate their ability to take responsibility for their health, many of us just neglect our health and allow others to determine the type of healthcare we will receive, but now you have a choice. The distinction of being accountable and responsible for your health isn’t something that just happens to you. It involves change and evolves over time.
Recent studies indicate that many of today’s working population are not saving for retirement and costly chronic disease is on the rise draining individual wealth resources even further. If you’re one of these American workers wondering how you are going to survive in your retirement and live a quality life then today is the day to take action and become a responsible healthcare consumer. By actively engaging your health and making sound choices that promote optimal health you will begin to see physical changes that will improve the quality of your life. Ultimately those health behavior changes will translate into real dollar savings that will grow into a wealthy Health Savings Account that you can use for retirement.
About Simplicity Health Plans
Cleveland, Ohio - Simplicity Health Plans is the best implementation of a CDHP/HSA. It aligns the interests of the Employer, Employee and the Provider to provide a turnkey, fully integrated Consumer Directed Health Plan. It also delivers a low cost, scalable solution to control claim costs. The Plan fuses unparalleled technology, point of service adjudication, real-time data, and first of its kind anti-fraud controls. Services include an ERISA compliant health plan, HSA administration and banking, medical claims administration, TPA functions, pharmacy, dental & vision, COBRA, stop loss reinsurance, real-time Utilization Review and Case Management, Health Coaching, Comparison Shopper, Health & Wellness programs, and a host of on-line tools for Providers, Employers and Members.
About the Authors
Lisa M. Holland, RN, MBA has been in the healthcare care industry for over 18 years and held senior level positions within major healthcare organizations. Lisa is an accomplished wellness subject matter expert and President of the StayFit Plan administered by Simplicity Health Plans. Contact Lisa at (216) 367-3092 or stayfitinfo@simplicityhealthplans.com
Gregory J. Hummer, M.D., has spent the last 18 years developing and perfecting Simplicity Health Plans to solve the vexing complexities, out-of-control costs, burdens and inefficiencies associated with today’s healthcare system. Dr. Hummer is Chairman and CEO of Simplicity Health Plans. Contact sales@simplicityhealthplans.com or log onto www.simplicitiyhealthplan.com for more information.
