The 3 benefits of CDMPs to health funds
Published on March 2, 2022
The idea of a Chronic Disease Management Plan (CDMP) is not new, but recent advances in digital technology have opened up a wealth of opportunities that previously never existed.
With the data available through a digitally-enabled wellness plan, health funds can help their members avoid chronic diseases, and help those members who do have these conditions to manage them better.
From a member’s perspective, avoiding chronic disease is a clear winner, but how does this help a fund? It turns out that for health funds, CDMPs provide three clear and measurable benefits:
• a clearer view of members’ likely future state of health
• improved member advocacy and retention
• reduced costs of hospitalisations and claims.
Let’s look at each of these benefits a bit more closely.
1. Seeing into the future
Insurers are betting against the future, and have to rely on actuaries and sophisticated data modelling to visualise where they’ll be ten, twenty or fifty years from now. Not easy, and a key to making accurate predictions is data.
A digital CDMP can track multiple aspects of a member’s diet, exercise regime, mindset and clinical indicators, providing a view of behaviour patterns and likely correlated health outcomes. For members, this enables provision of more personalised programs, tailored to their specific health needs, giving better engagement and value for money.
For health funds, this information provides a view of a member’s risk of chronic disease, and the types of claims they’re likely to generate. This knowledge can make projections of future costs far more accurate. It might not be a crystal ball, but it’s a more solid foundation for predicting the future.
2. Improving member retention and advocacy
Every health fund wants to reduce costs by improving its members’ health. Key to this is giving members the knowledge, confidence and capability to manage their health better. A digital CDMP puts the information and tools that members need to do this right in their pocket, through their mobile phone.
Self-monitoring tools, education pieces, personalised coaching and telehealth sessions are just some of the practical ways a digital CDMP can make daily improvements to member’s health.
It’s said that when you measure something it improves. A digital CDMP gives members a way to measure and understand what they’re doing. They can then make more informed decisions, whether it’s exercising more, improving their food choices or changing negative habits. This has a direct effect on their state of health.
Members who’ve tried the Total Wellbeing Lifestyle Management Plan for example, have experienced measurable reductions in chronic conditions such as:
• blood pressure - 7-9% lower
• cholesterol - 8% lower
• pressure on joints - 9.93% lower
• blood glucose - 6.40% lower.
With better health comes fewer claims, lower numbers of hospitalisations and faster recoveries. The fund’s costs go down and with it the cost of cover to members. Everyone wins.
3. Reducing costs
Every health fund wants to reduce costs by improving its members’ health. Key to this is giving members’ the knowledge, confidence and capability to manage their health better. A digital CDMP puts the information and tools that members need to do this right in their pocket, through their mobile phone.
Self-monitoring tools, education pieces, personalised coaching and telehealth sessions are just some of the practical ways a digital CDMP can make daily improvements to member’s health.
It’s said that when you measure something it improves. A digital CDMP gives members a way to measure and understand what they’re doing. They can then make more informed decisions, whether it’s exercising more, improving their food choices or changing negative habits. This has a direct effect on their state of health.
Members who’ve tried the Total Wellbeing Lifestyle Management Plan for example, have experienced measurable reductions in chronic conditions such as:
• blood pressure - 7-9% lower
• cholesterol - 8% lower
• pressure on joints - 9.93% lower
• blood glucose - 6.40% lower.
With better health comes fewer claims, lower numbers of hospitalisations and faster recoveries. The fund’s costs go down and with it the cost of cover to members. Everyone wins.
In conclusion
There are many sophisticated tools available to health funds these days, but offering a good-quality and trusted Chronic Disease Management plan stands out. Combining a digital health platform giving 24/7 access to tools, education, and behaviour change models with telehealth sessions by qualified allied health offers a unique engaging and broad-reaching solution. Why? Because it provides clear benefits both to members and to health funds.
Enabling members to make better and more informed decisions about their health reduces their chances of contracting a chronic disease. This in turn reduces their requirement for medication, treatment or hospitalisation. The resulting reduction in claims costs enables health funds to lower premiums or make sound investments in their future sustainability.
Successful funds are already offering or planning to offer CDMPs to their members, because they understand the three key benefits they provide: insights into the future, loyal members and reduced costs.
