NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Center for Occupational Medicine in Augusta, Ga. has partnered with Nashville-based Applied Health Analytics to provide software and consulting services to enhance its population health services to area employers concerned with improving workforce health, managing disease and reducing high healthcare costs.
The Center will use Applied Health Analytics’ Software-as-a-Service, business-support platform, BeneFactorIQ, to provide an efficient and interactive framework for its commercial-market health initiatives, which include onsite and mobile services. The agile application risk-stratifies data within population groups to target individuals with the most need, who incur the most healthcare costs, to ensure they receive appropriate interventions. BeneFactorIQ includes the Clinician Engagement and Support that provides a platform for ongoing care management, Metric-Based Incentive Designer and incentives tracking, solutions, Claims View, communications and feedback facilities.
Included in BeneFactorIQ is the company’s proprietary, evidence-based Personal Health Survey (health risk assessment), for which Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Dayani Center for Health and Wellness designed the rules and protocols that medically govern its program, including its risk stratification protocols, scoring algorithms and educational text.
“The Center for Occupational Medicine has long been an advocate for improving workforce and occupational health,” said Robert Chamberlain, co-founder, chairman and CEO at Applied Health Analytics. “Relationships between health care providers and local employers are positive partnerships. Healthcare providers improve population health by making employees more aware of preventive care measures while employers strive to lower healthcare costs and reduce absenteeism.”
Evidence-based, behavior-modification programs that reduce medical claims and lower premiums are becoming increasingly important in today’s workplace. The cost for employer-sponsored premiums for single coverage rose five percent and family coverage by four percent in 2013 compared to 2012 according to The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2013 Employer Health Benefits Survey. But the impact to employees was stronger.
Most covered workers face additional plan costs when they use healthcare services. The same study shows that 78 percent of covered workers have a general annual deductible for single coverage. Even workers without an annual deductible often face other types of cost sharing when using health services, including copayments or coinsurance for office visits and hospitalizations.
“Our employers, especially those who are self-funded, are looking at ways to control healthcare costs and make benefits more meaningful,” said Elizabeth Lamb, director at the Center for Occupational Medicine. “Since partnering with Applied Health Analytics, we have been able to provide local employers with useable risk stratification data that can guide them in spending their dollars when investing in health enhancement initiatives.”
The Center for Occupational Medicine works with more than 1500 employers in the Central Savannah River Area, varying from small, fully funded firms to large, self-funded companies.
“We continue to search for ways to deliver healthcare services outside of our walls in an effort to improve the health of our community,” continued Lamb. “Working with employers is key to this endeavor as they have vested interest in the health of their workforce. And employees are becoming more invested in their health as cost sharing and copays increase.”
About the Center for Occupational Medicine Partners
The Center for Occupational Medicine provides a comprehensive occupational health program dedicated to the health and wellbeing of workers in the Central Savannah River Area. It operates two free-standing centers- one in South Augusta and one in Columbia County, in addition to onsite services via a 40 ft mobile health coach. The Center for Occupational Medicine is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), the same company which also owns & operates Doctors Hospital of Augusta.
About Applied Health Analytics, LLC
Founded in 2009, Nashville-based Applied Health Analytics, LLC provides consulting and software services to hospitals and health systems to help them become population-health experts on a community-by-community basis. A joint-venture partner with Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Dayani Center for Health and Wellness, Applied Health Analytics advances the role of hospitals and health systems as they seek to engage employers to enhance individual health and increase share among commercial populations. The company experienced 180-percent growth in 2012 and a 94-percent client renewal rate, due to its market-responsive development and attention to client services.
