Improving health in the digital age

Improving your health can be hard work. Beyond eating better and exercising more, many of us are also managing chronic diseases and/or working to overcome the various logistical challenges associated with taking better care of ourselves. The good news is, care management programs offered by health plans can offer support. By delivering relevant information, resources and incentives, these programs aim to help individuals become more actively engaged in their health.

But, traditional approaches to care management have fallen short of their potential. Typical care management programs focus solely on those members with high-cost conditions, such as diabetes or asthma. By determining an individual’s needs based solely on the condition(s) they have, and not taking into account the host of factors that impact that individual’s health, health plans are missing the mark. Plans must move beyond cookie-cutter disease management campaigns to truly empower all of their members to make the right choices for their health.

At AxisPoint Health, headquartered in Colorado, the team aims to revolutionize care management, believing it to be critical to understand the holistic needs of each member, to create and execute specific plans for real people with real challenges.

Technology provides a means of learning about a member’s unique needs, preferences and struggles more intimately, and to address them with the best, most innovative and most efficient tools and services available. It’s easier than ever to meet members where they are, to connect and engage with them when and how they want.

That’s why AxisPoint Health recently launched CarePoint, a new program for health plans that leverages advanced analytics to identity the myriad factors that may be affecting an individual’s health, like missing medications or not visiting the doctor when it’s needed. The program also deploys care managers to provide ideas, tips and resources that will help members overcome obstacles that are keeping them from achieving their best health.

The CarePoint program offers a combination of modern technology and a human touch. CarePoint pairs members with the right care manager based on specific health challenges they’re facing. The care manager could be a registered nurse, a social worker or a health coach. The CarePoint program also gives members an extra boost by bringing in families, caregivers and friends who are supporting them on the health journey. Let’s say your sister is the person who drives you to medical appointments and to the pharmacy to pick up your medications. You can choose to add your sister to your program, so that she’s included in communications and reminders and better equipped to give you the extra support that you might need.

From a technological standpoint, the program moves beyond traditional in-person or telephonic communication to include digital channels such as email and SMS. Given our culture, it’s important that individuals receive important messages, reminders and words of encouragement in the mode they prefer.

Moreover, for care management to be truly integrated into our everyday lives, it needs to be mobile and social. That’s why CarePoint offers an app that incorporates all the customized reminders and information that members need and that acts as a private social network into which members can invite their families, caregivers and friends.

The integration of the human experience with technology is at the core of delivering quality health care today, with the ability to help guide, impact, and personalize the care experience in ways we’ve never imagined. Simply put, good care management and improving the lives and health of individuals is about meeting them with targeted and appropriate support, where and when it is needed.