Just to the east, the community of Nevada, Mo., has signed up for Healthe Intent, an initiative to get townsfolk to lead a more healthy lifestyle in efforts to reduce health care costs.
As reported in Sunday’s Kansas City Star, the campaign is conducted by Cerner Corporation, a worldwide developer of healthcare software, including that used in Allen County Regional Hospital to keep track of patient records and billing.
Cerner’s headquarters are in Kansas City, Kan. Begun in 1979, the company today has 14,000 employees with annual revenues of almost $3 billion.
Cerner makes no bones about its efforts to profit from the health initiative. The software to track outcomes, for instance, is a Cerner product.
That a populace can reduce its dependency on medication and trips to the hospital — by far the most expensive health care model — proves Healthe Intent is a win/win.
Cerner tried the model in-house before launching it with a community.
Programs tracked what people ate, how much they exercised, how they managed their diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc. For many employees, it meant the first time they sought out a family physician and got regular checkups.
The results were staggering.
Over five years, the company’s health insurance premiums rose only 1.6 percent against the national average of 7 to 10 percent. Health care spending per employee and their families dropped by 15 percent.
Clearly, preventive health care is a saver.
The results are still out on what it will mean for the community of Nevada. Its schools have incorporated more time for exercise and lessons on nutrition. The city is putting a priority on sidewalks and trails to encourage residents to walk and cycle more. Students are encouraged to watch less TV and get outside more. And community gardens are helping residents focus on a more healthy diet.
EDUCATION is key to better health outcomes.
Overwhelmingly, the ability to have health insurance is what separates those who use a hospital’s emergency room to treat a high temperature from those who visit a doctor’s office. The difference in cost? About $500. Who pays? Hospitals are forced to take on the costs as charity, while in reality are forced to pass on the costs to the general public with higher fees elsewhere. A hospital, after all, is a business.
Which pushes the point that the more people who are covered with health insurance, the lower the costs for us all.
