Actionable information for advisers to drive down costs

How does our referral system work? Ninety-nine percent of the time, when we see our primary care physician, we go to where that person refers us, right? As an employee, rarely do you question that referral. But is it the right doctor to be referred to, really? Is price and quality taken into consideration? No!

Let me use you in an example. Let’s say you have a son or daughter who just tore an Achilles in a sporting event. Would you not want him or her to have the best possible care and also do it at the best possible price? Without question the answer is yes! This is a situation your clients’ employees face every day.

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Bring in Monocle Health Data. We’ve all heard the discussion of transparency, the full, accurate and timely disclosure of information. Imagine if you could type in a condition, even multiple conditions, and up pops the physicians who have the greatest success and do it at the lowest cost. In a nutshell, that is what Monocle delivers to the marketplace. Unlike other competitors, Monocle does not deliver the actual pricing of a procedure, but isn’t the true value delivering the best quality at the best price? Personally, that is what I want to know.

I’m not going to waste your time going into the details, the nuts and bolts of how Monocle does all this. You can visit their website and request a demo yourself: monoclehealth.com. I will say that Monocle has found that the physicians who deliver the best quality are the same physicians who do it at the lowest cost. It makes sense, if you’re the best at what you do; you probably do it in an efficient manner.

This is good for so many reasons, i.e. employees/dependents receive the best quality of care, the lowest cost and the benefits to the employer are similar — lower cost to the health plan with less likelihood of complication or further costs from lessor quality care.

Incentivizing action

 My question to you is, how do we get our clients employees to use this technology? I don’t have the answer to this question and I’m actually seeking your input.

One solution could be a call center or patient advocate agency that an employer can contract with for employees to call and that entity can take the information and run the analysis. Or maybe as a value add or increased revenue, you the agent offer this service to your clients? Then there is also the HR staff that could do the same. Ideally, you would like the employee themselves to realize this is good for them and their family and they should want to access the information on their own. Unfortunately at this time, I don’t think the majority of employees will catch on without help.  Maybe the answer is financial incentives? It’s certainly worth, say, $50 to the employer to have an employee do some research to get the best care at the best price.

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I’m actually asking for your help in this month’s blog post. The point is, we have the data via a company like Monocle to get this valuable, actionable information. How do we get employees to use it? Please respond with your suggestions. We all hear our healthcare system is broken. I would suggest it could use a tune up. This is an opportunity to give our system a tune up and it is in everyone’s best interest.

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a regular series of blogs from Hodges that will highlight products and services that will help advisers sell and retain business and increase their bottom line.

Reach Hodges, RHU, REBC, CBC, of The Brokers Broker at khodges@thebrokersbroker.biz or (616) 446-4484.