Vitals offers the SmartShopper initiative, an incentive and engagement program designed to generate healthcare savings by giving consumers access to cost and quality transparency tools. Additionally, the program uses cash incentives to motivate consumers to switch to high-quality, lower-cost facilities.
The company released its “Book of Business Vitals SmartShopper 2016 Report,” detailing the savings the program helped employers and consumers achieve last year. Here are five findings from the report.
1. The report covers SmartShopper’s eight health plans and their employer clients. In 2015, employers saved $7 for every $1 they spent on incentives.
2. Collectively, consumers earned $1.46 million in incentives and generated approximately $12 million in savings.
3. Through the program, each shopped-for procedure resulted in $625 in savings.
4. The following 10 procedures generated the most in total savings:
• Colonoscopy: $1.81 million
• Remicade therapy: $1.72 million
• MRI: $1.6 million
• Physical therapy: $1.46 million
• Lab/blood work: $1.15 million
• CT scan: $598,403
• Upper GI: $383,918
• Mammogram: $250,108
• Knee surgery: $245,319
• Bariatric surgery: $178,297
5. If the healthcare consumerism supported by the SmartShopper program were to become widespread, savings could be significant. Here are the potential savings for four common procedures:
• CT scan: $40.6 billion (80 million cases per year)
• MRI: $20.3 billion (34.76 million cases per year)
• Colonoscopy: $16.6 billion (14.2 million cases per year)
• Mammogram: $2.4 billion (39.21 million cases per year)
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