Health 2.0

Dossia Chairman Mike Critelli, a recognized innovator in health benefits and workforce wellness, introduced Allviant Corporation’s CarePass™ technology at the Center for Health Value Innovation (CHVI) event on February 2 in Washington, D.C. Critelli touted CarePass’ ability to deliver a new level of convenience that breaks down the barriers consumers face in trying to manage their healthcare.

CarePass enables consumers to control their personal health service communications and transactions by aggregating and delivering context-relevant information securely -- via phone, e-mail or text messaging -- depending on their preference. Additionally, CarePass connects a network of service providers such as health savings vendors, portals, personal health records (PHRs), content sites, nurse call services, physicians and dentists. With the click of a button, CarePass members can schedule and confirm appointments, receive alerts or prescription reminders and verify deductibles or HSA balances.

“CarePass really helps organizations realize the full value of the benefits they work so hard to deliver to their employees and their families because it offers a practical, real-world method of understanding and managing those benefits,” states Critelli.

According to Lilian Myers, CEO of Allviant, “Consumer health engagement is the newest and biggest challenge. American companies spent an average of $329 per employee on cash incentives to drive engagement in 2008 -- up from $192 the year prior. Human behavior dictates that lasting engagement is a result of sense of control and relevance. CarePass was specifically designed to answer those issues.”

CarePass is currently being used at Arizona State University (ASU) to manage 175 wellness programs and events. The two-way CarePass communication technology allows participants to select the type of health and wellness information they want to receive, such as pregnancy- or asthma-related information, smoking cessation or women’s health. In a four-month period with only two email campaigns, ASU achieved a 17.4% CarePass adoption rate of the benefits eligible employees on the main campus. Those enrolled are receiving notifications for ASU Employee Wellness events and programs.

“This is an impressive adoption rate considering that ASU does not provide incentives for wellness programs or for enrollment in CarePass. This means that 17% enrolled because of a genuine interest in having both the control (CarePass) and the information,” explains Myers.

Americans over 15 years of age spend 847 million hours each year waiting for medical services.* This lost productivity can be avoided with CarePass, which helps connect consumers and their physicians' office in real time through a virtual waiting room.

The CarePass Virtual Waiting Room is being used at ASU student clinics today. This fall it was used to notify students of flu and H1N1 vaccine availability, appointment reminders, prevention alerts and mobile appointment check-in. This eliminated staff time typically required on the phone to confirm appointments and decreased no-shows.

“Consumers have become accustomed to this level of technology-enabled convenience in banking – why shouldn’t they have it for healthcare?” states Myers. “By delivering health information to busy consumers on the go, individuals gain unprecedented control over their health and wellness ecosystem. CarePass just makes sense for real people today.”

About Allviant Corporation

Allviant Corporation is the developer of CarePass™, a technology-enabled service that gives healthcare consumers a new method of access, convenience and control by connecting existing information systems and administrative data though a personally-defined set of communication methods. The opposite of customer relationship management (CRM), this service relationship management technology empowers the customer to determine when and how they want to interact with service providers across their unique array of healthcare relationships. For more information, please visit http://www.allviant.com/ or follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

Source

* Alan Krueger, Professor of Economics, Princeton University in 2/9/09 NY Times Economix Blog article – A Hidden Cost of Health Care: Patient Time.