LYNDHURST, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vitals today released its 2018 Book of Business report. The annual summary reports the metrics associated with shopping activity and savings achieved by employers and employees using Vitals SmartShopper.
SmartShopper is a high-tech, high-touch health care program that allows consumers to shop for and choose better-value medical care. Over the past four years, SmartShopper has generated over $56 million in savings for employers and has paid back $6.7 million in cash incentives to employees.
SmartShopper drives significantly higher engagement rates than other transparency solutions, with an impressive 60 percent of registered households shopping for care. In fact, SmartShopper processed over 24,850 incentive checks for consumers in 2017. That’s nearly 3 claims every hour.
The key to SmartShopper’s success is the program’s comprehensive approach. SmartShopper integrates with an employer’s unique benefit program. Employees receive the right information at the right time. Web tools, concierge services, incentives, multichannel engagement, intelligent analytics and hands-on account management come together to create savings for all.
“Technology alone is never going to bring down health costs,” said Heyward Donigan, President and CEO of Vitals. “But when you align incentives and provide information and personal support for consumers that helps them make confident health care decisions, people will shop. The impact of this behavior change is not only on business cost savings, but reduced market prices, as well.”
According to the Health Care Cost Institute, a large portion of medical care is shoppable – 47 percent, or $246 billion dollars worth of care. Shoppable services are routine medical services and procedures that a consumer can plan for in advance. They often have little to no relationship between the price and the quality. And there’s usually a fair number of providers offering the service in a geographic area.
With SmartShopper, consumers can shop for routine care like imaging services, labs, specialty drugs, preventative exams and outpatient surgeries. The price differentials on even routine care from one facility to the next are substantial. On average, consumers save $606 per shopped procedure.
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Sample of Savings per Procedure |
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| Service | Savings Per Case | |||||||
| Remicade Therapy | $5,076 | |||||||
| Physical Therapy | $1,810 | |||||||
| Colonoscopy | $1,116 | |||||||
| PET Scan | $1,687 | |||||||
| MRI | $595 | |||||||
| CT Scan | $543 | |||||||
| Mammogram | $80 | |||||||
About Vitals
Vitals empowers everyone to shop for their health care like an expert. Our integrated high-tech, high-touch platform helps people select better, more affordable care. Vitals leads the market with incentive and engagement programs proven to drive new levels of activation. Our solutions achieve measurable and sustainable savings for consumers, employers and health plans. Over 280 million people each year rely on Vitals to help them decide on their care with confidence.
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