Combining Population Health, Claim, Clinical Data and Wellness Programs to Improve Employee Health

The health makeup of a specific population is similar to a pyramid. The top of the pyramid represents a small number of people at the greatest risk of illness who generate the highest healthcare costs. The bottom of the pyramid represents individuals who are well and are at a low risk for illness. Unfortunately, the tendency is to make our way closer to the top of the pyramid as we age. Healthcare plans traditionally focus on those who are sick and moving up the pyramid, but Eliance Health Solutions takes a different approach.

Established by Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, Eliance Health Solutions is a local health plan for local businesses that have 15 or more employees. Its focus is on keeping both businesses and their employees healthy through a proactive and hyper-local partnership between the health plan, its wellness team and primary care providers.

“The Eliance health plan provider and the wellness team can work together to promote good healthcare and promote excellent well-being for employers and employees,” says Dr. Thomas Overholt, Medical Director for Eliance Health Solutions and a hospitalist with Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health. “Keeping employees healthy benefits not only the employees but also the employers, who save on healthcare costs and with workplace productivity.”

One of the unique components of Eliance health plans is the integration of population health data analysis for improved outcomes. Using an algorithm developed by Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Overholt inputs a variety of information, such as demographics, hospitalizations, emergency room visits and other health data to develop risk profiles for a company’s employees.

“The population health data allows us to identify people who are rising on the pyramid and tells us where we might want to focus our efforts with managing conditions like hypertension, diabetes, pre-diabetes, smoking and weight,” he says.

“Although that is traditionally where the primary care provider comes in, many employees are without a primary care provider,” says Brynn Kline, Manager of Corporate Health for Eliance Health Solutions. “By bringing wellness onsite, and working collaboratively to build a culture around well-being, we’ve created an opportunity to change this,” Kline says.

The Eliance Health Solutions team works to connect health plan members with a primary care provider in the Eliance Preferred Network. In addition to this, Eliance health plans include an onsite wellness component. The wellness team offers a variety of services to health plan members including onsite flu shots, health screenings, wellness education and 1:1 health coaching. “We are establishing a new concept of what primary care is and achieving higher engagement from employees.”

In addition to the tangible health and cost benefits, Eliance offers businesses another long-term investment. “Retention and talent management is a big thing,” she says. “Employees are going to be committed to an organization where they feel respected and cared for and valued. What we are doing with our employer partners is effective and producing positive outcomes for everyone.”

To learn more about how Eliance Health Solutions is dedicated to improving the health of the community, please call 717-869-3877.

To read the full article where our team discusses this concept with LancasterOnline please click here.