Data analytics plants the seed for improved healthcare member experience

Data analytics is a powerful tool for the healthcare industry today, and savvy healthcare payers are tapping their data as a way to better understand their members' historic and future health patterns in new ways.

Predictive analytics creates opportunities for insurers to suggest options for medical or preventative care, guiding their members meaningfully toward sustained wellness.

This kind of thinking doesn't just fall from a tree: managing data and applying analytics in a way that benefits both the member and the insurer is a 360-degree, 365-day-a-year process that insurers need to run in a holistic manner.
Why? Think of the saying, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" – planting the seed in insurers' minds that happy and healthy members are profitable healthcare insurance customers requires a better understanding of the data available to them.

Member data holds the potential to unlock more effective outreach, better risk management and enhanced profitability. Before healthcare data analytics can bear fruit, however, it's critical to ensure the integrity of member data beginning at the enrollment phase.

As insurers, you have the ripe opportunity to make the most of your data – leaving a positive impression on your members as a result. From enrollment through each stage of a long and happy member life, data management can improve your relationship with your members – on a path toward sustained wellness.
Leverage the Power of Big Data Analytics

Americans spend $432 billion a year to treat heart disease and strokes alone, followed by $175 billion on diabetes, $154 billion on lung disease, and $148 billion on Alzheimer's Disease, according to one source.
These are national healthcare problems that, at their core, have significant economic repercussions. Even a one percent increase in savings across just these four chronic diseases would free up more than $9 billion in healthcare resources that the healthcare industry could use for research, facilities or improved margins.

Analytics can allow insurers to predict, with more accuracy, those segments of the population who are more susceptible to chronic diseases. An undiagnosed or untreated disease can be disabling and reduce a person's quality of life. In fact, the number of people with at least one chronic disease is predicted to rise from 47.7 percent in 2015 to 49.2 percent in 2030. With analytics, insurers can predict those individuals who are at the greatest risk of chronic disease, allowing them to engage with those members on wellness and prevention very early in the customer lifecycle.

Analytics, if applied with the right blend of internal and third party data is a pragmatic, strategic approach that has the potential for improving healthcare outcomes. For example, what if you were able to correlate various claims and prescription data from many years of historical information to identify patterns in members' behavior. By applying advanced analytics, you are able to focus on interventions for specific scenarios for small subsets of your population to generate the biggest return.

Data Analytics is the Apple of Insurers' Eyes

When thinking about a member's lifecycle holistically, any data collected for that member provides additional insights that can assist in providing the best member experience altogether – from the moment a member enrolls into a health plan to ongoing interaction to ensure members are satisfied and healthy.

And that's the golden apple that insurance payers should strive for.

Sumit is CEO and President of Infogix, where he is responsible for leading company strategy, operations and customer partnerships. Sumit joined the company in 2004 as the head of the Products Group. Under Sumit's leadership, Infogix introduced its suite of automated controls solutions for distributed environments. Sumit also spearheaded a partnership with one of the largest banks in the U.S. to create Infogix ER, the next generation enterprise reconciliation solution. Prior to joining Infogix, Sumit held leadership positions at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, SPSS, Inc., and PwC, and also attended Brown University and the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School.

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