Letter from the Executive Director

Prevention Can Help Reduce Benefit Dollars

A recent Health Payer News article on how preventive services are not always cost effective does not tell the whole story.
 
Addressing the cost savings issue has proved challenging due to the difficulty of precisely measuring results. However, recent well-publicized studies report progress in the measurement of savings and results. For example, an important meta analysis of relevant literature on costs and direct savings associated with workplace wellness programs found that medical costs fell by about $3.27 for every dollar spent on wellness programs (Health Affairs 304,308 Feb 2010).
 
The article suggests that the link between prevention and savings is not always direct. The piece points out that at times, prevention can increase spending. While this view is likely valid, it should also be noted that any added costs of preventive services such as clinical screenings do not always exceed the savings from averted illnesses.

 
The article is incomplete because it fails to note that prevention also can be aided through access to inexpensive (often free) individual risk profiles, such as Health Risk Assessments (HRAs), which can detect a propensity for future problems before illness occurs. Based on completion of simple yet in-depth questionnaires, such non-laboratory related screenings can serve as a harbinger of problems related to cost drivers such as obesity and smoking which add billions of dollars in cost to the nation's health bill.
 
Workplace wellness programs are successful market-based examples of prevention (intervention) that is working without necessarily adding to medical costs. Predictive modeling and data analytics are showing promise in preventing illness and reducing health costs – without the expenditure of a single dime in government spending. Predictive technology (the ACG System) developed by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, one of the world's most respected academic and medical research institutions, permits early identification of health risk based on analysis of already available health plan claims data.
 
While clinical screening is valuable in detecting disease and can be costly, prevention that detects disease before it occurs is a "priceless" way to avoid expensive treatment while lowering costs and improving individual health. A 2009 report from the Health Research Center refers to a Miliken Institute Report noting that savings from modest improvements in risk factors such as unhealthy behaviors could bring about 40 million fewer cases of chronic disease and reduce economic costs by $1.1 trillion annually in treatment costs and productivity by 2023.

George J. Pantos
Executive Director

gpantos@hpminstitute.org