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The 2021 Shkreli Awards: Lown Institute Counts Down the Top 10 Healthcare Industry Abuses in the Coronavirus Pandemic
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 6 January 2021 in Bio/life sciences, Bioethics, Business and health, Coronavirus, Corporate responsibility, COVID-19, Global Health, Health care industry, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health ecosystem, Health equity, Health policy, Health politics, Health Quality, HIV/AIDS, Medicines, Money and health, Mortality, Pharmaceutical, Popular culture and health, Prescription drugs, Public health, Social responsibility, Transparency, Trust
The first year of the coronavirus pandemic in America was a kind of stress test on the U.S. health care system, revealing weak links and opportunities for bad behavior. "These are not just about individual instances or bad apples," Dr. Vikas Saini, President of The Lown Institute, explained, referring to them as "cautionary tales" of the current state of U.S. health care. Dr. Saini and his colleague Shannon Brownlee released the annual Lown Institute 2020 Shkreli Awards this week, highlighting their ten most egregious examples of the worst events in U.S. health care that happened in the past year —
Nurses, doctors, pharmacists join with teachers in Gallup's 2021 honest and ethics poll
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 30 December 2020 in Business and health, Coronavirus, Corporate responsibility, COVID-19, Doctors, Education and health, Employers, Health at home, Health benefits, Health care industry, Health care marketing, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health education, Health equity, Health media, Health policy, Health social networks, Hospitals, Infectious disease, Love and health, Medical innovation, Money and health, Nurses, Patient engagement, Patient experience, Transparency
Each year, Americans rank nurses as the most honest and ethical professionals along, generally followed by doctors and pharmacists. In the middle of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., grade school teachers join the three medical professions in the annual Gallup Poll on the top-ranked professions for honest and ethical behavior in America as we enter 2021 with many U.S. hospitals' intensive care units at full capacity….and schools largely emptied of students. The three health care professions scored their highest marks ever achieved in this Gallup Poll, which has been assessing honesty and ethics in America since 1999. Nurses are
The 2021 Health Populi TrendCast – Health Care, Self-Care, and the Rebirth of Love in Public Health
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 21 December 2020 in ACA, Affordable Care Act, Behavioral health, Broadband, Business and health, Connected health, Consumer electronics, Coronavirus, Corporate responsibility, COVID-19, Demographics and health, Depression, Design and health, Digital health, Doctors, Environment and heatlh, Fashion and health, Financial health, Financial wellness, Food and health, GDPR, Grocery stores, Health at home, Health care industry, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Health equity, Health literacy, Health privacy, Health reform, Home care, Hospitals, Housing and health, Infectious disease, Internet of things, Loneliness, Love and health, medical home, Medical technology, Medicare, Medicines, Mental health, Money and health, Mortality, Nutrition, Pets and health, Pharmacy, Popular culture and health, Prescription drugs, Prevention, Privacy and security, Public health, Race and health, Remote health monitoring, Retail health, Self-care, Shopping and health, Sleep, Smartwatches, Social determinants of health, Social isolation, Social networks and health, Social responsibility, Stress, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Trust, Universal health care, Virtual health, Voice technology, Wearable tech, Wearables, Wellbeing
In numerology, the symbolic meaning behind the number "21" is death and re-birth. In tarot cards, 21 is a promise of fulfillment, triumph, and victory. How apropos that feels right now as we say goodbye and good riddance to 2020 and turn the page for a kinder, gentler, healthier New Year. It would be sinful to enter a New Year as challenging as 2021 promises to be without taking the many lessons of our 2020 pandemic life and pain into account. For health care in America, it is a time to re-build and re-imagine a better, more equitable landscape for
Consumers Demand Digital Transformation Across Their Health Care Experiences
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 15 December 2020 in Connected health, Consumer experience, Consumer-directed health, COVID-19, Design and health, Digital health, Financial health, Health apps, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health engagement, Health finance, Heart disease, Heart health, Internet and Health, Money and health, Patient experience, Personal health finance, Remote health monitoring, Self-care, Shopping and health, Social media and health, Social networks and health, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Transparency, User experience UX, Virtual health
From appointment scheduling to checking in, payment and clinical encounter follow-up, patients now expect digital experiences across the health care continuum….and really great ones, like they get from Amazon and other platforms that earn high net promoter scores. That is the big message from the 2020 Healthcare Consumer Experience Study published by Cedar, based on the input of 1,502 U.S. adults who paid a medical bill between October 2019 and October 2020. The timing of this study coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. through at least seven months of American patients' experiences in 2020. Two-thirds
Will 2021 Be the Year of Sicker Americans? Pondering Late 2020 Data from IQVIA
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 10 December 2020 in Bio/life sciences, Cancer, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Death, Diagnostics, Health care industry, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Healthcare access, Heart disease, Heart health, Hospital finance, Hospitals, Patient engagement, Patient experience, Pharmaceutical, Pharmacy, Physicians, Population health, Prescription drugs, Prevention and wellness, Primary care, Public health, Retail health, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Vaccines, Virtual health
Yesterday, IQVIA presented their end-of-year data based on medical claims in the U.S. health care system tracking the ups, downs, and ups of the coronavirus in America. IQVIA has been tracking COVID-19 medical trends globally from early 2020. The plotline of patient encounters for vaccines, prescribed medicines, foregone procedures and diagnostic visits to doctors begs the question: in 2021, will Americans be "sicker," discovering later-stage cancer diagnoses, higher levels of pain due to delayed hip procedures, and eroded quality of life due to leaky guts? Here are a few snapshots that paint a picture for greater morbidity and potentially more "excess
U.S. Health Consumers' Growing Financial Pressures, From COVID to Cancer
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 9 December 2020 in Banks and health, Bio/life sciences, Cancer, Consumer experience, Consumer-directed health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Health benefits, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health ecosystem, Health finance, High deductibles, Medicines, Mental health, Money and health, Patient experience, Pharmaceutical, Pharmacy, Prevention, Primary care, Public health, Retail health, Specialty drugs, Wellbeing
Before the coronavirus pandemic, patients had been transforming into health care payors, bearing high deductibles, greater out of pocket costs, and financial risk shifting to them for medical spending. In the wake of COVID-19, we see health consumers-as-payors impacted by the pandemic, as well as for existing diagnoses and chronic care management. There is weakening in U.S. consumers' overall household finances, the latest report from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) asserted (published 25 November 2020). In John Leer's look into the BEA report in Morning Consult, he wrote, "Decreases in income, the expiration of unemployment benefits and increased
How Nurx Is Empowering Women's Health and Self-Care in the Pandemic Era
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 7 December 2020 in Consumer-directed health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Design and health, Fertility, Financial health, Health care marketing, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Health media, Health ratings and report cards, media and health, Mental health, Moms and health, Money and health, Patient engagement, Patient experience, Popular culture and health, Prevention, Retail health, Self-care, Shopping and health, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Transparency, Trust, Value based health, Virtual health, Wellbeing, Women and health
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, women have experienced more than the direct physical, clinical impact of COVID-19: beyond "lives," women's livelihoods, financial health and emotional well-being have been hard-hit. This is true on both a global basis as well as in the United States. In that context, last week I engaged in a fascinating conversation with Varsha Rao, CEO of Nurx, to discuss the current state of women and health/care in America, and some thoughts about the future. If you've had the TV on sometime since March 2020, one of many millions of people in the U.S. spending
The COVID Healthcare Consumer – 5 Trends Via The Medecision Liberation Blog
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 23 November 2020 in Anxiety, Behavioral health, Broadband, Connected health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Depression, Financial health, Financial wellness, GDPR, Health at home, Health care industry, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health equity, Health insurance, Health policy, Health politics, Health privacy, Healthcare access, Internet and Health, Jobs and health, Loneliness, Love and health, Mental health, Money and health, Mortality, Prevention, Prevention and wellness, Public health, Race and health, Retail health, SDoH, Self-care, Seniors and health, Social determinants of health, Social isolation, Stress, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Trust, Universal health care, Virtual health
The first six months into the coronavirus pandemic shocked the collective system of U.S. consumers for living, learning, laboring, and loving. I absorbed all kinds of data about consumers in the wake of COVID-19 between March and mid-August 2020, culminating in my book, Health Citizenship: How a virus opened hearts and minds, published in September on Kindle and in print in October. In this little primer, I covered the five trends I woven based on all that data-immersion, following up the question I asked at the end of my previous book, HealthConsuming: when and how would Americans claim their health
The Pandemic, Amazon, Pharmacy, and the Digital Transformation of Health Consumers
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 17 November 2020 in Consumer experience, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Digital health, Health apps, Health at home, Health care marketing, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Health marketing, Home care, Medicines, Mental health, Money and health, Pharmaceutical, Pharmacy, Retail health, Self-care, Shopping and health, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Transparency, Value based health, Virtual health, Voice technology
As the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in the U.S., Americans were already Primed for ecommerce — even in health care. The coronavirus accelerated the digital transformation on people as consumers — and consumers as health consumers. Today, Amazon announced the company's launch of Amazon Pharmacy. Watch for earth-shaking (negative) impacts on the incumbent pharmacies like CVS, Rite-Aid, Walgreens, as well as discount and ecommerce players such as GoodRx. [Sidebar: as of 10 am this morning, the announcement "sunk" the retail pharmacy stocks, according to TheStreet.com]. Some context: this announcement builds on Amazon's previous major move into pharmacy with its acquisition of
The COVID-19 Era Has Grown Health Consumer Demand for Virtual Care
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 9 November 2020 in Behavioral health, Computers and health, Connected health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Depression, Digital health, Employee benefits, Employers, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Health apps, Health at home, Health benefits, Health care marketing, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health engagement, Health insurance, Health IT, Health Plans, HealthcareDIY, Home care, Internet and Health, medical home, Medical innovation, Mental health, mHealth, Mobile health, Patient engagement, Popular culture and health, Remote health monitoring, Self-care, Shopping and health, Social isolation, Social networks and health, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Transparency, Wearable tech, Wearables, Workplace benefits
Over one-half of Americans would likely use virtual care for their healthcare services, and one in four people would actually prefer a virtual relationship with a primary care physician, according to the fifth annual 2020 Consumer Sentiment Survey from UnitedHealthcare. What a difference a pandemic can make in accelerating patients' adoption of digital health tools. This survey was conducted in mid-September 2020, and so the results demonstrate U.S. health consumers' growing digital health "muscles" in the form of demand and confidence in using virtual care. One in four people would consider online options as their first-line to evaluating personal health
Voting for Health in 2020
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 2 November 2020 in ACA, Anxiety, Behavioral economics, Big data and health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Data analytics and health, Design and health, Financial health, Financial wellness, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Health law, Health policy, Health politics, Health privacy, Health reform, Health social networks, Love and health, Medicines, Mental health, Moms and health, Nurses, Personal health finance, Pharmaceutical, Physicians, Prescription drugs, Prevention, Public health, Race and health, Retail health, Safety net and health, Shopping and health, Social determinants of health, Social networks and health, Women and health
In the 2018 mid-term elections, U.S. voters were driven to polls with health care on their minds. The key issues for health care voters were costs (for care and prescription drugs) and access (read: protecting pre-existing conditions and expanding Medicaid). Issue #2 for 2018 voters was the economy. In 2020, as voting commences in-person tomorrow on 3rd November, U.S. voters have lives and livelihoods on their minds. It's the pandemic – our physical lives looming largest in the polls – coupled with our fiscal and financial lives. Health is translating across all definitions for U.S. voters in November 2020: for
How Grocery Stores Are Part of the Health/Care Ecosystem – the Case of ALDI and Instacart
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 30 October 2020 in Business and health, Chronic disease, Coronavirus, Corporate responsibility, COVID-19, Diabetes, Food and health, Health at home, Health care marketing, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Healthcare access, Heart health, Home care, Money and health, Nutrition, Public health, Self-care, Social determinants of health, Vitamins, Wellness
As humans in the Age of the Coronavirus focus on physiological needs, people have intensely focused on hunting-and-gathering food and hygiene products. We will remember memes about toilet tissue stockpiling and re-visiting canned and shelf-stable comfort foods from childhood long after the pandemic. Some people, though, haven't had easy access to nutritious food in their communities or the ability to engage with ecommerce platforms to order food for delivery. An alliance between ALDI, the value-priced grocer, and Instacart, was forged to address that gap as a key social determinant of health. Food-is-medicine when it comes to managing chronic conditions like
Health Care Providers Are More Politically Engaged in the 2020 Elections
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 27 October 2020 in Consumer experience, Demographics and health, Doctors, Emergency care, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Health equity, Health insurance, Health policy, Health politics, Nurses, Physicians, SDoH, Social determinants of health
Until 2016, physicians' voting rates in U.S. elections had not changed since the late 1970s. Then in 2018, two years into President Donald Trump's four-year term, the mid-term elections drove U.S. voters to the election polls…including health care providers. Based on the volume and intensity of medical professional societies' editorials on the 2020 Presidential Election, we may be in an inflection-curve moment for greater clinician engagement in politics as doctors and nurses take claim of their health citizenship. A good current example of this is an essay published in the AMA's website asserting, "Why it's okay for doctors to ask
Healthcare Costs, Access to Data, and Partnering With Providers: Patients' Top User Experience Factors
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 23 October 2020 in Consumer experience, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Depression, Design and health, Doctors, Financial toxicity, Health care industry, Health care marketing, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Health finance, Health insurance, Health marketing, Health Plans, Health social networks, Hospitals, Mental health, Money and health, Patient engagement, Patient experience, Physicians, Primary care, Retail health, Self-care, Shared decision making, Social networks and health, Transparency, User experience UX
As patients returned to in-person, brick-and-mortar health care settings after the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic, they re-enter the health care system with heightened consumer expectations, according to the Beryl Institute – Ipsos Px Pulse report, Consumer Perspectives on Patient Experience in the U.S. Ipsos conducted the survey research among 1,028 U.S. adults between 23 September and 5 October 2020 — giving consumers many months of living in the context of the coronavirus. This report is a must-read for people involved with patient and consumer health engagement in the U.S. and covers a range of issues. My focus in this
Stress in America, Like COVID-19, Impacts All Americans
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 21 October 2020 in Anxiety, Behavioral health, Boomers, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Deaths of despair, Demographics and health, Depression, Financial health, Financial wellness, Health and wealth, Health citizenship, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health equity, Health policy, Health politics, Health reform, Health social networks, Infectious disease, Kids' health, Loneliness, Love and health, Mental health, Money and health, Opioids, Stress
With thirteen days to go until the U.S. #2020Elections day, 3rd November, three in four Americans say the future of America is a significant source of stress, according to the latest Stress in America 2020 study from the American Psychological Association. Furthermore, seven in 10 U.S. adults believe that "now" is the lowest point in the nation's history that they can remember. "We are facing a national mental health crisis that could yield serious health and social consequences for years to come," APA introduces their latest read into stressed-out America. Two in three people in the U.S. say that the
Women's Health Policy Advice for the Next Occupant of the White House: Deal With Mental Health, the Pandemic, and Health Care Costs
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 20 October 2020 in Anxiety, Baby health, Behavioral health, Caregivers, Children's health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Depression, Family, Fertility, Financial health, Financial wellness, Health and wealth, Health at home, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health finance, Health insurance, Health policy, Kids' health, Loneliness, medical home, Mental health, Moms and health, Money and health, Popular culture and health, Prescription drugs, Prevention and wellness, Public health, Race and health, SDoH, Self-care, Social determinants of health, Stress, Telehealth, Universal health care, Wellbeing, Women and health
2020 marked the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote. In this auspicious year for women's voting rights, as COVID-19 emerged in the U.S. in February, women's labor force participation rate was 58%. Ironic timing indeed: the coronavirus pandemic has been especially harmful to working women's lives, the Brookings Institution asserted last week in their report in 19A: The Brookings Gender Equality Series. A new study from Tia, the women's health services platform, looks deeply into COVID-19's negative impacts on working-age women and how they would advise the next occupant of
The COVID-19 Pandemic Has Accelerated Our Demand for Wellness – Learning from Ogilvy
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 16 October 2020 in Anxiety, Banks and health, Business and health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Financial health, Financial wellness, Food and health, Health and wealth, Health at home, Health care industry, Health care marketing, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Home care, Mental health, Money and health, Prevention and wellness, Public health, Retail health, Self-care, Shopping and health, Sleep, Sustainability, Trust, Wellbeing, Wellness
Every company is a tech company, strategy consultants asserted over the past decade. The coronavirus pandemic has revealed that every company is a health and wellness company now, at least in the eyes of consumers around the world. In The Wellness Gap, the health and wellness team at Ogilvy explores the mindsets of consumers in 14 countries to learn peoples' perspectives on wellness brands and how COVID-19 has impacted consumers' priorities. A total of 7,000 interviews were conducted in April 2020, in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America — including 500 interviews in the U.S. The first chart illustrates
The Coronavirus Pandemic Turbocharged Digital Health Investment in 2020
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 12 October 2020 in Affordable Care Act, Bio/life sciences, Business and health, Chronic disease, Connected health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Diagnostics, Digital health, Digital therapeutics, Health at home, Health care information technology, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health finance, Health IT, Health politics, Home care, Hospital finance, Hospitals, Medical technology, Public health, Remote health monitoring, Retail health, Self-care, Sensors and health, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Virtual health, Wearables
2020 will be remembered for disruption and dislocation on many fronts; among the major blips in the year will be it remembered as the largest funding year for digital health recorded, according to Rock Health's report on the 3Q2020 digital health funding. This funding record ("already" before year-end, tallied by the third quarter as Rock Health notes) was driven by "mega"-deals accelerated during the public health crisis of COVID-19. In the third quarter of 2020, some $4 billion was invested in U.S. based digital health start-ups adding up $9.4 billion in 2020….so far. This is $1.2 billion more than two
In the Past Ten Years, Workers' Health Insurance Premiums Have Grown Much Faster Than Wages
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 9 October 2020 in ACA, Affordable Care Act, Anxiety, Behavioral health, Business and health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Employee benefits, Employers, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Health and wealth, Health benefits, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health insurance, Health Plans, Health policy, High deductibles, High-Deductible Health Plans, Mental health, Money and health, Uninsured, Workplace benefits, Workplace wellness
For a worker in the U.S. who benefits from health insurance at the workplace, the annual family premium will average $21,342 this year, according to the 2020 Employer Health Benefits Survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The first chart illustrates the growth of the premium shares split by employer and employee contributions. Over ten years, the premium dollars grew from $13,770 in 2010 to $21K in 2020. The worker's contribution share was 29% in 2010, and 26% in 2020. Single coverage reached $7,470 in 2020 and was $5,049 in 2010. Roughly the same proportion of companies offered health benefits to
Financial Health Is On Americans' Minds Just Weeks Before the 2020 Elections
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 8 October 2020 in ACA, Anxiety, Banks and health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Demographics and health, Depression, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Health benefits, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health insurance, Health policy, Health politics, Mental health
Financial health is part of peoples' overall health. As Americans approach November 3, 2020, the day of the real-time U.S. Presidential and down-ballot elections, personal home economics are front-of-mind. Twenty-seven days before the 2020 elections, 7 in 10 Americans say their financial health will influence their votes this year, according to the doxoINSIGHTS survey which shows personal financial health as a key voter consideration in the Presidential election. Doxo, a consumer payments company, conducted a survey among 1,568 U.S. bill-paying households in late September 2020. The study has a 2% margin of error. U.S. voters facing this year's election are
DIY Health Care and Self-Care Accelerating in the Pandemic
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 22 September 2020 in Alternative medicine, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Financial health, Financial wellness, Food and health, Grocery stores, Health at home, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Healthcare DIY, HealthcareDIY, Home care, Integrative medicine, Medicines, Money and health, Nutrition, Pharmacy, Prescription drugs, Prevention and wellness, Retail health, Self-care, Shopping and health, Vitamins, Wellbeing
The coronavirus pandemic has spawned many side-effects re-shaping consumers' everyday lives. Among them, more time at home, DIY life-flows, and financial well-being are driving growth of self-care health care. An article in the latest Drug Store News talks about consumers growing more health-conscious, adopting natural, homeopathic products. "It's about more than washing your hands," David Salazar explains. "Fending off illness has become a state of mind for many consumers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic." In feeling dis-empowered in the face of the pandemic – with the first shock of the Great Lockdown and stay-at-home mandates – we've taken on more do-it-yourself behaviors, from
Health Citizenship in the America. If Not Now, When?
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 18 September 2020 in Anxiety, Behavioral health, Broadband, Connected health, Coronavirus, Corporate responsibility, COVID-19, Demographics and health, Depression, Digital health, Financial health, Financial wellness, Food and health, Grocery stores, Health at home, Health care industry, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health Economics, Health ecosystem, Health equity, Health policy, Health politics, Health reform, Health social networks, Internet and Health, Jobs and health, Love and health, medical home, Mental health, Money and health, Popular culture and health, Primary care, Public health, Race and health, Retail health, SDoH, Self-care, Shopping and health, Smart homes, Social determinants of health, Social isolation, Social networks and health, Social responsibility, Stress, Telehealth, Trust, Virtual health, Wellbeing, Women and health, Workplace benefits
On February 4th, 2020, in a hospital in northern California, the first known inpatient diagnosed with COVID-19 died. On March 11th, the World Health Organization called the growing prevalence of the coronavirus a "pandemic." On May 25th, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died at the hands of police in Minneapolis. This summer, the Dixie Chicks dropped the "Dixie" from their name, and NASCAR cancelled the confederate flag from their tracks. Today, nearly 200,000 Americans have died due to the novel coronavirus. My new book, Health Citizenship: How a virus opened hearts and minds, launched this week. In it, I
Only in America: The Loss of Health Insurance as a Toxic Financial Side Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 17 September 2020 in ACA, Affordable Care Act, Business and health, Coronavirus, Corporate wellness, COVID-19, Demographics and health, Employee benefits, Employers, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health Economics, Health equity, Health finance, Health insurance, Health insurance marketplaces, Health Plans, Health policy, Health politics, Health reform, Health social networks, Money and health, Mortality, Prevention, Prevention and wellness, Primary care, Public health, Race and health, SDoH, Social determinants of health, Social responsibility, Social security, Trust, Universal health care, Wellbeing, Workplace benefits
In terms of income, U.S. households entered 2020 in the best financial shape they'd been in years, based on new Census data released earlier this week. However, the U.S. Census Bureau found that the level of health insurance enrollment fell by 1 million people in 2019, with about 30 million Americans not covered by health insurance. In fact, the number of uninsured Americans rose by 2 million people in 2018, and by 1.9 million people in 2017. The coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated the erosion of the health insured population. What havoc a pandemic can do to minds, bodies, souls, and wallets. By September 2020,
50 Days Before the U.S. Elections, Voters Say Health Care Costs and Access Top Their Health Concerns — More than COVID-19
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 14 September 2020 in ACA, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Financial health, Health benefits, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health Plans, Health policy, Health politics, Money and health, Prevention, Public health, Social responsibility, Social security, Uninsured, Workplace benefits
The coronavirus pandemic has revealed deep cracks and inequities in U.S. health care in terms of exposure to COVID-19 and subsequent outcomes, with access to medical care and mortality rates negatively impacting people of color to a greater extent than White Americans. The pandemic has also led to economic decline that, seven weeks before the 2020 elections in America, is top-of-mind for health citizens with the virus-crisis itself receding to second place, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation September 2020 Health Tracking Poll. KFF polled 1,199 U.S. adults 18 years of age and older between August 28 and September 3,
Americans Worry About Medical Bankruptcy, As Prescription Drug Costs Play Into Voters' Concerns
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 10 September 2020 in Coronavirus, COVID-19, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Health and wealth, Health benefits, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health Economics, Health equity, Health insurance, Health politics, HSAs, Medicines, Money and health, Pharmaceutical, Prescription drugs, Public health, Race and health, Transparency, Trust, Vaccines, Women and health
One in two people in the U.S. are concerned that a major health event in their family would lead to bankruptcy, up 5 percent points over the past eighteen months. In a poll conducted with West Health, Gallup found that more younger people are concerned about medical debt risks, along with more non-white adults, published in their study report, 50% in U.S. Fear Bankruptcy Due to Major Health Event. The survey was fielded in July 2020 among 1,007 U.S. adults 18 and older. One of the basic questions in studies like these is whether a consumer could cover a $500
Behavioral Health Side-Effects in the COVID Era
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 9 September 2020 in Anxiety, Behavioral health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Deaths of despair, Demographics and health, Depression, Digital therapeutics, Health at home, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health ecosystem, Health equity, Health policy, Health politics, Health social networks, Loneliness, Mental health, Money and health, Popular culture and health, Population health, Pre-existing conditions, Prevention and wellness, Public health, Race and health, Remote health monitoring, Risk management, Safety net and health, Self-care, Sleep, Social determinants of health, Social isolation, Social networks and health, Stress, Suicide, Telehealth, Value based health, Virtual health, Wellbeing, Women and health
"This surge of people experiencing acute behavioral health problems…has the potential to further impact the healthcare system for years to come," a report from McKinsey expects looking at the hidden costs of COVID-19's impact on U.S. health care. The coronavirus pandemic has taken a toll on Americans' mental health, with anxiety and depression growing as a side-effect to worries about the virus itself, the long Great Lockdown in much of the country, and the economic recession that has particularly impacted women and people of color. I covered depression impacts due to COVID-19 here in Health Populi yesterday, and wanted to
The Burden of Depression in the Pandemic – Greater Among People With Fewer Resources
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 8 September 2020 in Anxiety, Caregivers, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Demographics and health, Depression, Employee benefits, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Health and wealth, Health at home, Health benefits, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health Economics, Health ecosystem, Health insurance, Health policy, Health social networks, Jobs and health, Loneliness, Love and health, Mental health, Moms and health, Money and health, Prevention, Prevention and wellness, Public health, SDoH, Self-care, Sex and health, Social determinants of health, Social isolation, Social networks and health, Social security, Wellbeing, Wellness, Women and health, Workplace benefits
In the U.S., symptoms of depression were three-times greater in April 2020 in the COVID-19 pandemic than in 2017-2018. And rates for depression were even higher among women versus men, along with people earning lower incomes, losing jobs, and having fewer "social resources" — that is, at greater risk of isolation and loneliness. America's health system should be prepared to deal with a "probable increase" in mental illness after the pandemic, researchers recommend in Prevalence of Depression Symptoms in US Adults Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in JAMA Network Open. A multidisciplinary team knowledgeable in medicine, epidemiology, public health,
Pharma's Future Relevance Depends on Empathy, Messaging, Partnering, and Supporting Patients and Providers
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 1 September 2020 in Bio/life sciences, Biotech, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Design and health, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Health at home, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health education, Health engagement, Healthcare DIY, Heart disease, Heart health, Home care, Hospitals, medical home, Medication adherence, Medicines, Mental health, Money and health, Oncology, Patient engagement, Patient experience, Pharmaceutical, Pharmacy, Prescription drugs, Remote health monitoring, Retail health, Self-care, Specialty drugs, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Trust, User experience UX, Virtual health, Wearable tech
COVID-19 is re-shaping all industries, especially health care. And the pharma industry is challenged along with other health care sectors. In fact, the coronavirus crisis impacts on pharma are especially accelerated based on how the pandemic has affected health care providers, as seen through research from Accenture published in Reinventing Relevance: New Models for Pharma Engagement with Healthcare Providers in a COVID-19 World. For the study, Accenture surveyed 720 health care providers in general practice, oncology, immunology, and cardiology working in China, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the U.S., in May and June 2020. Top-line, Accenture points to four
Health Insurance Affordability in the Time of the Coronavirus Pandemic
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 27 August 2020 in Business and health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Demographics and health, Employee benefits, Employers, Financial health, Financial wellness, Health benefits, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health insurance, Health Plans, Workplace benefits
The coronavirus pandemic has revealed many flaws in the U.S. healthcare system, first and foremost the nation's patchwork public health infrastructure and health inequities in mortality rates due to COVID-19. The Commonwealth Fund's biennial report, published as the pandemic continues into and beyond the third quarter of 2020, sheds light on another weakness in U.S. healthcare: the cost of health insurance relative to working Americans' relatively flat incomes. I explored the details of this study in a post titled Health Insurance Affordability: A Call-to-Action for Healthcare Industry Stakeholders in the Pandemic, published on the Medecision Liberation blog site. The survey
The Next Site for Hospital Care Is the Original One — Your Home
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 5 August 2020 in Broadband, Consumer electronics, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Design and health, Digital health, Health at home, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Home care, Hospital finance, Hospitals, Housing and health, Internet of things, medical home, Patient experience, Remote health monitoring, Smart homes, Telehealth, Telemedicine, User experience UX, Virtual health
The coronavirus pandemic accelerated many trends and new workflows for patients and consumers, and health care providers, too. The convergence of basic needs like hygiene and safety, financial and health security, and living-working-learning-and-cooking-at-home has turbocharged a migration of more acute care delivered at home. I explore this growing concept in my latest essay on Medecision's Liberation blog, How the Pandemic Is Accelerating the Hospital-At-Home Concept. The key points are that: Hospital-at-home services (H-a-H) combine home visits with virtual care and remote monitoring Think: advanced home care, enabled through virtual health technologies and wrap-around services both clinical and scaled social determinants
The She-Cession – a Financially Toxic Side-Effect of the Coronavirus Pandemic
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 4 August 2020 in Business and health, Caregivers, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Demographics and health, Family, Health at home, Health benefits, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health Economics, Health policy, Home care, Jobs and health, Kids' health, Moms and health, Money and health, Public health, SDoH, Social determinants of health, Women and health, Workplace benefits, Workplace wellness
Along with the life-threatening impact of the coronavirus on physical health, and the accompanying mental health distress activated by self-distancing comes a third unintended consequence with the pandemic: a hard hit on women's personal economies. The recession of the pandemic is considered by many economists as a "She-Cession," a downturn in the economy that's negatively impacting women more acutely than men. This is markedly different than the Great Recession of 2008, the last major financial crisis: that financial decline was coined a "ManCession," taking a more significant toll out of more typically men's jobs like construction and manufacturing where fewer
The Racial Divide Due to COVID-19 Also Applies to Healthcare and Pharma Costs
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 31 July 2020 in Coronavirus, COVID-19, Death, Demographics and health, Financial health, Financial wellness, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health Economics, Health equity, Medicines, Pharmaceutical, Prescription drugs, Race and health, Social determinants of health
Into the sixth month of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., it's clear that COVID-19 has wreaked a greater mortality and morbidity impact on people of color than on white adults. A new Gallup-West Health poll found that the coronavirus also concerns more non-white Americans than whites when it comes to the cost of health care and medicines to deal with the effects of COVID-19. Considering the cost of COVID-19 treatment, across all U.S. adults, 40% of people are concerned (extremely/concerned), and 41% are "not at all concerned." Broken down by race, there is a stark difference in levels of
The Unbearable Heaviness of Healthcare in America – the Change Healthcare/Harris Poll
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 27 July 2020 in Broadband, Connected health, Consumer experience, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Design and health, Digital health, Financial wellness, Health apps, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health insurance, Health Plans, Health social networks, Love and health, Money and health, Patient experience, Public health, Safety net and health, Self-care, Social determinants of health, Social networks and health, Social responsibility, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Transparency, User experience UX, Virtual health
The phrase, "burden of health care," has two usual meanings: one, to do with the massive chronic care burden, and the other, involving costs. There's a third area of burden in U.S. health care — the onerous patient experience in finding and accessing care, assessed in the 2020 Change Healthcare – Harris Poll Consumer Experience Index. Two in three U.S. consumers feel like "every step of the healthcare process is a chore." That burdensome patient experience leads to one in two people in America avoiding seeking care, the poll found. That's not just self-rationing health care due to costs, but due
The Median Hospital Charge In the U.S. for COVID-19 Care Ranges From $34-45K
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 17 July 2020 in Coronavirus, COVID-19, Employee benefits, Employers, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Health and wealth, Health benefits, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health finance, Health insurance, Hospital finance, Hospitals, Medicare, Money and health, Mortality, Safety net and health, Social determinants of health
The median charge for hospitalizing a patient with COVID-19 ranged from $34,662 for people 23 to 30, and $45,683 for people between 51 and 60 years of age, according to FAIR Health's research brief, Key Characteristics of COVID-19 Patients published July 14th, 2020. FAIR Health based these numbers on private insurance claims associated with COVID-19 diagnoses, evaluating patient demographics (age, gender, geography), hospital charges and estimated allowed amounts, and patient comorbidities. They used two ICD-10-CM diagnostic codes for this research: U07.1, 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease; and, B97.29, other coronavirus as the cause of disease classified elsewhere which was the original code
A Toxic Side Effect of the Coronavirus: Financial Unwellness
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 16 July 2020 in Caregivers, Consumer experience, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Health benefits, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health finance, Health insurance, Money and health, Patient experience, Public health, SDoH, Social determinants of health, Social security, Women and health
One in two people in the U.S. say their financial health has been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, through job loss, income disruption, or reduced work hours. The 2020 Financial Wellness Census, from Prudential found that one-half of U.S. adults are anxious about their financial future as of May 2020, an increase from 38% in late 2019. Prudential surveyed 3,000 U.S. adults across three generational cohorts: Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers. The economic hit from the pandemic has disproportionately impacted people of color, younger people, women, small business owners, gig workers, and people working in retailer harder than
From Dr. Fauci to Peloton, Healthcare and Wellness Baked Into Ad Age's Top 20 Brands for 2020
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 14 July 2020 in Business and health, Consumer experience, Consumer-directed health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Health at home, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health marketing, medical home, Meditation, Mental health, Mindfulness, Money and health, Popular culture and health, Prevention and wellness, Retail health, Self-care, Shopping and health, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Virtual health, Wearable tech, Wellbeing
Advertising Age announced their list of the top 20 brands in 2020 this week. Ad Age's lens on these was heavily tinted by consumers' lives coping with the coronavirus pandemic: "The coronavirus has brought new attention to typically boring, decades-old consumer staples, while hastening the rise of digital newcomers that were only just beginning to gain traction pre-pandemic," Ad Age explains in the introduction to the list of the selected brands. As the editors of the MadMen-and-Women's most influential industry publication, they explain, "Ad Age chronicles 20 brands that are having a moment." This moment to them as well as
Trust Is a Key Social Currency for COVID-Embattled Consumers
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 9 July 2020 in Coronavirus, COVID-19, Financial health, Financial wellness, Health and safety, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Hospitals, Trust
The coronavirus pandemic has re-shaped patients into consumers, concerned about managing the risk of contracting the virus, millions of people experiencing months of sheltering, working, learning, and cooking at home. Combine these new life-flows with conflicting information about the nature, severity, and life-span of COVID-19: From three levels of government leaders: The President and the Executive Branch at the Federal Level, Governors of States, and Mayors of cities; Public health agencies, especially the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization; Mass media; and, Social media. Re-entering life in the "next normal" requires a large dose of trust,
U.S. Hospitals Will Lose $323 Billion in 2020 – Before Accounting for Growing COVID Cases
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 1 July 2020 in Coronavirus, COVID-19, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Hospital finance, Hospitals
U.S. health systems are projected to lose $323 billion in 2020 due to declining inpatient and outpatient volumes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the "normal" hospital business. Hospitals racked up over $200 bn in losses between March and June 2020. according to the American Hospital Association's report, Hospitals and Health Systems Continue to Face Unprecedented Financial Challenges Due to COVID-19. AHA suggests that the $323 bn loss figure may be underestimated, as growing coronavirus cases are emerging in certain states: as of this writing, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah among those states heating up.
Growing Evidence for eConsults – the Asynchronous, Clinician-to-Clinician Platform for Telehealth
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 29 June 2020 in Connected health, Health costs, Health Economics, Physicians, Remote health monitoring, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Virtual health
Health care providers stood up virtual health care services with lightning speed as the coronavirus pandemic emerged in the U.S. Telehealth and its various flavors enabled both patients and providers to manage the risk of contracting the virus, especially at a time when little was known about the nature of transmission, treatment and prevention — except for washing hands, covering one's face, and isolating when showing symptoms. In Electronic Consultations (eConsults): A Triple Win for Patients, Clinicians, and Payers, the Milbank Memorial Fund explores the evidence supporting the growth of asynchronous electronic consultation encounters between patients and clinicians. Note that
What Will Healthcare Costs Be After COVID? PwC Looks Behind the 2021 Numbers
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 24 June 2020 in Behavioral health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Health benefits, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health insurance, Health Plans, Hospitals, Primary care, Public health, Remote health monitoring, Self-care, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Virtual health
Whether healthcare spending in 2021 increases by double-digits or falls by one-third directly depends on how the coronavirus pandemic will play out over the rest of 2020, based on PwC's annual report on medical cost trends for 2021. The three cost scenarios are based on assumptions shown in the fine print on the first chart: The medium scenario, a sort of "return to normal" where medical trend could stay even at 6.0%, equal to the 2020 trend. This assumes that healthcare spending recovers by October 2020 as patients return to hospitals and doctors' offices for regular care patterns. In 2021,
Americans Across Political Party Worry About Prescription Drug Prices – Especially to Deal with COVID-19
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 18 June 2020 in Bio/life sciences, Financial toxicity, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health policy, Health politics, media and health, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicines, Pharmaceutical, Pharmacy, Prescription drugs, Retail health, Specialty drugs, Transparency, Women and health
Nine in ten Americans is concerned about the price of prescription drugs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Gallup and West Health found in their survey on the cost of healthcare, published today. A majority of people across political party share this concern: overall, 88% of U.S. adults are concerned about rising drug prices in response to COVID19, split across party ID with: 94% of Democrats, 86% of Independents, and 84% of Republicans. By demographics, more women than men are concerned about rising costs for the three health care spending categories the survey studied: drug prices, insurance premiums, and
Economic Anxieties Rise, Medical and Vacation Plans Delayed: the COVID-19 Consumer in June 2020
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 16 June 2020 in Broadband, Connected health, Consumer-directed health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Digital health, Health at home, Health care industry, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health policy, Health politics, Healthcare access, Internet Demographics, Money and health, Retail health, Self-care, Social determinants of health, Telehealth, Telemedicine
Some 6 in 10 people in the U.S. have been financially impacted by COVID-19. Those most negatively affected by the pandemic tend to be younger, Gen Z age group and African-American, 63% of whom felt financial pressure directly due from the virus and the national economic lockdown. By late May 2020, 34% of black Americans had lost their jobs compared with 21% in late April, compared with 18% of white consumers, reported in The COVID-19 Pandemic's Financial Impact on U.S. Consumers, survey research from TransUnion. This post describes data from TransUnion's Wave 9 report, which polled 2,086 U.S. adults 18
How Philips Has Pivoted In the COVID-19 Pandemic: Connected Care From Hospital to Home
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 11 June 2020 in Connected health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Digital health, Health care industry, Health care information technology, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Home care, Hospitals, medical home, Patient engagement, Patient experience, Remote health monitoring, Self-care, Sensors and health, Smartwatches, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Virtual health, Wearable tech, Wearables
What a difference 90 days makes. I was scheduled to meet with Roy Jakobs, Chief Business Leader of Connected Care at Philips, at HIMSS in Orlando on 9th March 2020. I'd interviewed Roy at CES 2020 in Las Vegas in January to catch up on consumer health developments, and the March meeting was going to cover Philips' innovations on the hospital and acute care side of the business, as well as to learn more about Roy's new role as head of Connected Care. HIMSS cancelled the conference just days before it was to commence….due to the great disruption of COVID-19.
Saving Money as a Financial Vaccine: BlackRock Finds Consumer Savings Drain and Etsy Sellers Not Saving Much
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 10 June 2020 in Anxiety, Banks and health, Behavioral economics, Business and health, Coronavirus, Corporate responsibility, COVID-19, Employers, Financial health, Financial wellness, Health and wealth, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health finance, Health insurance, Personal health finance, Risk management, Social security, Vaccines, Wellbeing, Workplace benefits
"Americans are feeling incredible financial pressure as a result of the COVID outbreak," John Thompson, Chief Program Officer with the Financial Health Network. One in three people in the U.S. has skipped or stopped paying a bill, and over half of Americans have used emergency savings, according to a survey from the BlackRock Emergency Savings Initiative (ESI). BlackRock, the investment firm, allocated $50 million in February 2019 to form the ESI, focused on helping people with lower incomes to bolster savings and financial health. BlackRock partners in the ESI with the Financial Health Network, CommonWealth, the Center for Advanced Hindsight Common
Americans' Concerns About the US Healthcare System Loom Larger Than Worries About Their Own Care
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 9 June 2020 in Bio/life sciences, Business and health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Education and health, Health benefits, Health care industry, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health insurance, Health Plans, Health policy, Health politics, media and health, Medical innovation, Medicines, Money and health, Personal health finance, Pharmaceutical, Pre-existing conditions, Prescription drugs, Public health, SDoH, Shared decision making, Social determinants of health, Universal health care, Wellbeing
The coronavirus pandemic has further opened the kimono of the U.S. healthcare system to Americans: four months into the COVID-19 outbreak, most consumers (62%) of people in the U.S. are more concerned about other people not having access to high quality health care versus themselves. This is a 16 point increase in concern in May 2020 compared with the response to the same question asked in February in a poll conducted by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research (the AP-NORC Center). The AP-NORC Poll found more of this
The Hair Economy in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Control, Wellness, and Self-Care
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 29 May 2020 in Beauty and health, Behavior change, Business and health, Consumer-directed health, Coronavirus, Corporate responsibility, COVID-19, Grocery stores, Health and Beauty, Health at home, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Health social networks, Home care, medical home, Mental health, Money and health, Popular culture and health, Public health, Retail health, Self-care, Shopping and health, Social isolation, Sustainability, Telehealth, Wellbeing, Women and health
The barbershop and beauty salon are important community touch points for health, wellness, and social connection in so many peoples' lives. In my book, HealthConsuming: From Health Consumer to Health Citizen, I feature the black barbershop to introduce a chapter on "The New Retail Health." In the COVID-19 pandemic, how we're dealing with hair is a metaphor for personal control, for political statements, for mental health, and for overall well-being. Check out Geoff Coates' (known as Sadochicken, from Vancouver) take on "how quarantine hairdos are lookin'," here. Can you see yourself? I can (it's the "Corona Bangs" style for me,
Trust My Doctor and Fear the Office: The Telehealth Opportunity in and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 22 May 2020 in Anxiety, Consumer experience, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health insurance, Health Plans, Medicare, Medicines, Mental health, Patient experience, Pharmacy, Retail health, Self-care, Telehealth, Telemedicine
Doctors maintain their top status as U.S. patients' most-trusted source of coronavirus information. However, as patients continue to be concerned about exposure to COVID-19, 3 in 5 are concerned about being at-risk to the virus in their doctor's office, according to research from the Alliance of Community Health Plans (ACHP) and AMCP, the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy. Patients' concerns of COVID-19 risks have led them to self-ration care in the following ways: 41% have delayed health care services 42% felt uncomfortable going to a hospital for any medical treatment 45% felt uncomfortable using an urgent care or walk-in clinic,
What $6,553 Buys You in America: A Luxury Watch, a Year at Valdosta State, or a PPO for One – the 2020 Milliman Medical Index
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 19 May 2020 in Business and health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Employers, Health benefits, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health finance, Health insurance, Health Plans, Healthcare access, High deductibles, Hospital finance, Hospitals, Medicines, Personal health finance, Pharmacy, Prescription drugs, Self-care, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Uninsured
Imagine this: you find yourself with $6,553 in your pocket and you can pick one of the following: A new 2020 Breitling Navitimer watch; A year's in-state tuition at Valdosta State University; or, A PPO for an average individual. Welcome to the annual Milliman Medical Index (MMI), which gauges the yearly price of an employer-sponsored preferred-provider organization (PPO) health insurance plan for a hypothetical American family and an N of 1 employee. That is a 4.1% increase from the 2019 estimate, about twice the rate of U.S. gross domestic product growth, Milliman points out in its report. Milliman bases
How COVID-19 Has Re-Shaped Health Care Delivery So Far
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 14 May 2020 in Consumer experience, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Employee benefits, Health care industry, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Health insurance, Healthcare access, Medication adherence, Medicines, Mental health, Oncology, Patient engagement, Pharmaceutical, Pharmacy, Physicians, Prescription drugs, Shopping and health, Telehealth, Telemedicine
COVID-19 is re-shaping health care in America across many dimensions. In Shifts in Healthcare Demand, Delivery and Care During the COVID-19 Era, IQVIA presents a multi-faceted profile of the early impacts of the pandemic on U.S. health care. In the report, published in April 2020, IQVIA mined the company's many data bases that track real-time data, including medical claims, flu data, sales data, oncology medical and pharmacy claims, formularies, among other sources. Top-line, IQVIA spotted the following key shifts in U.S. health care since the start of the coronavirus pandemic: Patients' use of health services Impacts on medicine use, influenced
TransUnion Reveals the Home Economics and Social Determinants of COVID-19
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 7 May 2020 in Broadband, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Financial health, Financial wellness, Health and wealth, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health equity, Housing and health, Social determinants of health
Today, 7th May 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that about 3.17 million jobs were lost in the nation in the last week. This calculated to an unemployment rate of 15.5%, an increase of 3.1% points from the previous week. Total jobs lost in the COVID-19 pandemic, starting from the utterance of the "P" word, has been ___ in the I.S. The virus's global impact has led to what IMF called the Great Lockdown, resulting in economic inertia and contraction since Asia and Europe reported the first patients diagnosed with the coronavirus. The economic impact the world
COVID-19's Consumer Health Care Behaviors: Telehealth, Trauma, and Trust, via PwC
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 29 April 2020 in Business and health, Coronavirus, Corporate wellness, COVID-19, Employee benefits, Employers, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health engagement, Telehealth, Trust
In a matter of several weeks, people living in the U.S. have endured massive personal social, emotional, physical and fiscal disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic. State mandates to shelter at home, the adoption of wearing face masks and covers in public, and re-making dining tables and dens into home-working spaces for kids in school or parents telecommuting, American homes have morphed into petri dishes of people undergoing dramatic changes in a very short time. A new report from PwC looks at peoples' changes in health behaviors in the first two months of the pandemic, asking whether these changes will
How COVID-19 is Hurting Americans' Home Economics in 2020
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 27 April 2020 in Affordable Care Act, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Financial health, Financial wellness, Health and wealth, Health benefits, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health finance, Mental health, Money and health, Personal health finance, Retail health, Retirement and health, Self-care, Social security, Value based health
Beyond the physical and clinical aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic are financial hits that people are taking in the shutdown of large parts of the U.S. economy, impacting jobs, wages, and health insurance rolls. Some 1 in 2 people in the U.S. who have had their income impacted by the coronavirus have either fallen behind in paying off credit card debt or other bills, had problems paying for utilities, have lagged in paying for housing (rent or mortgage), been challenged paying for food, or other out-of-pocket costs. We learn about these fiscal hits from COVID-10 from the latest Health Tracking Poll
Health, Wealth & COVID-19 – My Conversation with Jeanne Pinder & Carium, in Charts
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 23 April 2020 in Anxiety, Banks and health, Business and health, Consumer-directed health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Employee benefits, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Health and wealth, Health benefits, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health Economics, Health equity, Health insurance, Health policy, Health politics, High deductibles, Hospital finance, Money and health
The coronavirus pandemic is dramatically impacting and re-shaping our health and wealth, simultaneously. Today, I'll be brainstorming this convergence in a "collaborative health conversation" hosted by Carium's Health IRL series. Here's a link to the event. Jeanne founded ClearHealthCosts nearly ten years ago, having worked as a journalist with the New York Times and other media. She began to build a network of other journalists, each a node in a network to crowdsource readers'-patients' medical bills in local markets. Jeanne started in the NYC metro and expanded, one node at a time and through many sources of funding from not-for-profits/foundations,
The Patient-as-Payor in the Coronavirus Pandemic
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 21 April 2020 in Coronavirus, COVID-19, Financial health, Financial wellness, Health and wealth, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health Economics, Health equity, Health finance, Health insurance, High deductibles, Hospital finance
One in three working age people in the U.S. lost their job as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of whom lost health insurance and others anxious their health coverage will be threatened, revealed in a survey from The Commonwealth Fund published on April 21, 2020. 2 in 5 people in America who are dealing with job insecurity are also health insurance insecure, the study found, as shown in the pie chart. The Commonwealth Fund commissioned the poll among 1,001 U.S. adults 18 to 64 years of age between 8-13 April 2020. Nearly all Americans believe the dots of
Americans' Sense of Well-Being Falls to Great Recession Levels, Gallup Finds
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 14 April 2020 in Coronavirus, COVID-19, Demographics and health, Depression, Financial health, Financial wellness, Global Health, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health equity, Health finance, Health policy, Health politics, Mental health, Population health, Prevention and wellness, Public health, Stress, Wellbeing, Wellness
It's déjà vu all over again for Americans' well-being: we haven't felt this low since the advent of the Great Recession that hit our well-well-being hard in December 2008. As COVID-19 diagnoses reached 200,000 in the U.S. in April 2020, Gallup gauged that barely 1 in 2 people felt they were thriving. In the past 12 years, the percent of Americans feeling they were thriving hit a peak in 2018, as the life evaluations line graph illustrates. Gallup polled over 20,000 U.S. adults in late March into early April 2020 to explore Americans' self-evaluations of their well-being. FYI, Gallup asks consumers
The Coronavirus Impact on American Life, Part 2 – Our Mental Health
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 7 April 2020 in Addiction, Anxiety, Behavioral health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Deaths of despair, Demographics and health, Depression, Digital therapeutics, Exercise, Financial health, Financial wellness, Guns and health, Happiness, Health benefits, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health ecosystem, Health education, Health equity, Health law, Health literacy, Health policy, Health politics, Health social networks, Heart disease, Heart health, Infectious disease, Integrative medicine, Kids' health, Loneliness, Love and health, medical home, Meditation, Mental health, Mindfulness, Moms and health, Money and health, Mortality, Opioids, Pain, Patient engagement, Pets and health, Prevention, Public health, Retail health, Schools and health, Self-care, Sleep, Social determinants of health, Social isolation, Social networks and health, Suicide, Telehealth, Trust, Violence and health, Voice technology, Wearable tech, Wearables, Wellbeing, Women and health
As the coronavirus pandemic's curve of infected Americans ratchets up in the U.S., people are seeking comfort from listening to Dolly Parton's bedtime stories, crushing on Dr. Anthony Fauci's science-wrapped-with-empathy, and streaming the Tiger King on Netflix. These and other self-care tactics are taking hold in the U.S. as most people are "social distancing" or sheltering in place, based on numbers from the early April 2020 Kaiser Family Foundation health tracking poll on the impact of the coronavirus on American life. While the collective practice of #StayHome to #FlattenTheCurve is the best-practice advice from the science leaders at CDC, the NIAID
Wistful Thinking: The National Health Spending Forecast In a Land Without COVID-19
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 26 March 2020 in Coronavirus, COVID-19, Health care industry, Health costs, Health Economics, Health ecosystem, Health insurance, Health policy, Health politics, High deductibles, Hospitals, Infectious disease, Loneliness, Medicines, Money and health, Public health, Universal health care
U.S. health care spending will grow to 20% of the national economy by 2028, forecasted in projections pre-published in the April 2020 issue of Health Affairs, National Health Expenditure (NHE) Projections. 2019-28: Expected Rebound in Prices Drives Rising Spending Growth. NHE will grow 5.4% in the decade, the model expects. But…what a difference a pandemic could make on this forecast. This year, NHE will be $3.8 trillion, growing to $6.2 trillion in 2028. Hospital care spending, the largest single component in national health spending, is estimated at $1.3 trillion in 2020. These projections are based on "current law," the team
In the US COVID-19 Pandemic, A Tension Between the Fiscal and the Physical
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 24 March 2020 in Bioethics, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health equity, Health policy, Health politics, High deductibles, Money and health, Mortality, Public health
"Act fast and do whatever it takes," insists the second half of the title of a new eBook with contributions from forty leading economists from around the world. The first half of the title is, Mitigating the COVID Economic Crisis. The book is discussed in a World Economic Forum essay discussing the economists' consensus to "act fast." As the U.S. curve adds new American patients testing positive for the coronavirus, the book and essay illustrate the tension between health consumer versus the health citizen in the U.S. For clinical context, as I write this post on 24th March 2020, today's U.S.
In A Nation "At War" with the C19 Virus, Partisan Healthcare Differences Persist
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 23 March 2020 in Anxiety, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Education and health, FDA, Global Health, Health benefits, Health care industry, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Health policy, Health politics, Infectious disease, Mental health, Mortality, Prevention, Public health
More Democrats would want to get tested for the coronavirus (C19) than would Republicans. And, more women than men believe that a vaccine to address the COVID-19 pandemic believe that treatment would be offered at no-or-low-cost under a Democratic president versus President Trump. These are two key insights gleaned from a look into U.S. adults' perspectives on the C19 virus in the second week of March 2020. What Are Americans' Views on the Coronavirus Pandemic? asks and answers an NBC News/Commonwealth Fund Health Care Poll published on 20th March 2020. NBC News and the Commonwealth Fund polled 1,006 people 18
Estimates of COVID-19 Medical Costs in the US: $20K for inpatient stay, $1300 OOP costs
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 18 March 2020 in Banks and health, Broadband, CDHPs, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Employee benefits, Employers, Financial health, Financial wellness, Health benefits, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health finance, Health insurance, Health law, Health Plans, Health policy, Health politics, Health reform, Hospital finance, Infectious disease, Money and health, Personal health finance, Public health, Seniors and health, Social determinants of health, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Universal health care, Workplace benefits
In the midst of growing inpatient admissions and test results for COVID-19, Congress is working as I write this post to finalize a round of legislation to help Americans with the costs-of-living and (hopefully) health care in a national, mandated, clarifying way. Right now in the real world, real patients are already being treated for COVID-19 in American hospitals. Patients are facing health care costs that may result in multi-thousand dollar bills at discharge (or death) that will decimate households' financial health, particularly among people who don't have health insurance coverage, covered by skinny or under-benefited plans, and/or lack banked
Lockdown Economics for U.S. Health Consumers
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 17 March 2020 in Anxiety, Behavioral health, Connected health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Depression, Grocery stores, Health at home, Health benefits, Health care industry, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health insurance, Health Plans, Health policy, Health politics, Health social networks, Hospital finance, Hospitals, Infectious disease, Loneliness, Mental health, Personal health finance, Prevention, Public health, Self-care, Shopping and health, Social determinants of health, Social isolation, Social networks and health, Universal health care
The hashtag #StayHome was ushered onto Twitter by 15 U.S. national healthcare leaders in a USA Today editorial yesterday. The op-ed co-authors included Dr. Eric Topol, Dr. Leana Wen, Dr. Zeke Emanuel, Dr. Jordan Shlain, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Andy Slavitt, and other key healthcare opinion leaders. Some states and regions have already mandated that people stay home; at midnight last night, counties in the Bay Area in California instituted this, and there are tightening rules in my area of greater Philadelphia. UBS economist Paul Donovan talked about "Lockdown Economics" in his audio commentary today. Paul's observations resonated with me as
Telehealth and COVID-19 in the U.S.: A Conversation with Ann Mond Johnson, ATA CEO
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 13 March 2020 in Business and health, Chronic disease, Computers and health, Connected health, Consumer electronics, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Data analytics and health, Digital health, Digital therapeutics, Global Health, Health apps, Health care industry, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health insurance, Health Plans, Health policy, Health politics, Healthcare access, Hospitals, Medical technology, Mental health, Mobile health, Patient experience, Primary care, Remote health monitoring, Retail health, Rural health, Self-care, Smartphones, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Virtual health, Voice technology
Will the coronavirus inspire greater adoption of telehealth in the U.S.? Let's travel to Shanghai, China where, "the covid-19 epidemic has brought millions of new patients online. They are likely to stay there," asserts "The smartphone will see you now," an article in the March 7th 2020 issue of The Economist. The article returns to the advent of the SARS epidemic in China in 2003, which ushered in a series of events: people stayed home, and Chinese social media and e-commerce proliferated. The coronavirus spawned another kind of gift to China and the nation's health citizens: telemedicine, the essay explains. A
Waking Up a Health Consumer in the COVID-19 Era
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 12 March 2020 in Business and health, Consumer-directed health, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Digital health, Financial health, Financial wellness, Global Health, Health at home, Health benefits, Health care industry, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Health policy, Health politics, Health social networks, High deductibles, Home care, Hospitals, Infectious disease, Money and health, Patient engagement, Popular culture and health, Prevention and wellness, Retail health, Self-care, Shopping and health, Social networks and health, Supply chain, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Virtual health, Wellbeing
With President Trump's somber speech from the Oval Office last night, we wake up on 12th March 2020 to a ban on most travel from Europe to the U.S., recommendations for hygiene, and call to come together in America. His remarks focused largely on an immigration and travel policy versus science, triaging, testing and treatment of the virus itself. Here is a link to the President's full remarks from the White House website, presented at about 9 pm on 11 March 2020. Over the past week, I've culled several studies and resources to divine a profile of the U.S. consumer
"How's Life?" for American Women? The New OECD Report Reveals Financial Gaps on International Women's Day 2020
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 9 March 2020 in Affordable Care Act, Aging, Business and health, Demographics and health, Financial health, Financial wellness, Health and wealth, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health equity, Health finance, Health policy, Money and health, Women and health
March 8 is International Women's Day. In the U.S., there remain significant disparities between men and women, in particular related to financial well-being. The first chart comes from the new OECD "How's Life?" report published today (March 9th) measuring well-being around the country members of the OECD. This chart focuses on women versus men in the United States based on over a dozen key indicators. Top-line, many fewer women feel safe in America, and earnings in dollars and hours worked fall short of men's incomes. This translates into lower socioeconomic status for women, which diminishes overall health and well-being for
How Coronavirus Is Re-Shaping Consumer Behavior, From the Amusement Park to the Voting Booth
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 4 March 2020 in Amazon, Behavior change, Broadband, Connected health, Consumer-directed health, Digital health, Grocery stores, Health at home, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health policy, Health politics, Home care, Internet and Health, Mobile health, Money and health, Patient engagement, Self-care, Shopping and health, Social determinants of health, Telehealth, Telemedicine
The coronavirus has shaken U.S. consumer confidence, both in terms of financial markets and personal health risks. COVID-19 is re-shaping peoples' behavior and daily choices, from using public transit to choosing where to shop, based on Morning Consult's National Tracking Poll #200276 conducted February 28-March 1, 2020. Morning Consult surveyed 2,200 U.S. adults, finding that 3 in 4 Americans were concerned about the coronavirus outbreak. The first chart from the survey shows various consumer activities by peoples' likelihood of choosing to do them. Clearly, our daily life-flows outside of our homes have been impacted by our perceived risks of the coronavirus:
Job #1 for Next President: Reduce Health Care Costs – Commonwealth Fund & NBC News Poll
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 2 March 2020 in Aging, Demographics and health, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Health and wealth, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health finance, Health insurance, Health policy, Health politics, Money and health, Retirement and health, Seniors and health
Four in five U.S. adults say lowering the cost of health care in America should be high priority for the next American president, according to a poll from The Commonwealth Fund and NBC News. Health care costs continue to be a top issue on American voters' minds in this 2020 Presidential election year, this survey confirms. The first chart illustrates that lowering health care costs is a priority that crosses political parties. This is true for all flavors of health care costs, including health insurance deductibles and premiums, out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs, and the cost of long-term care. While
The High Cost-of-Thriving and the Evolving Social Contract for Health Care
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 28 February 2020 in Aging, Business and health, Deaths of despair, Demographics and health, Employers, Financial health, Financial wellness, Global Health, Health and wealth, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health ecosystem, Health equity, Health finance, Health insurance, Health policy, Health politics, Health reform, Money and health, Personal health finance, Public health, Retirement and health, Seniors and health, Social determinants of health, Suicide, Wellbeing
Millions of Americans have to work 53 weeks to cover a year's worth of household expenses. Most Americans haven't saved much for their retirement. Furthermore, the bullish macroeconomic outlook for the U.S. in early 2020 hasn't translated into individual American's optimism for their own family budgets. (Sidebar and caveat: yesterday was the fourth day in a row of the U.S. financial markets losing as much as 10% of market cap, so the global economic outlook is being revised downward by the likes of Goldman Sachs, Vanguard, and Morningstar, among other financial market prognosticators. MarketWatch called this week the worst market
Outpatient is the New Inpatient – The Future of Hospitals in America
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 26 February 2020 in Broadband, Business and health, Connected health, Consumer-directed health, Design and health, Digital health, Financial toxicity, Grocery stores, Health at home, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Health insurance, Healthcare access, Hospital finance, Hospitals, Mental health, Money and health, Personal health finance, Prevention, Primary care, Retail health, Self-care, Shopping and health, Telehealth, Uninsured, Value based health
Outpatient revenue is crossing the curve of inpatient income. This is the new reality for U.S. hospitals and why I've titled this post, "outpatient is the new inpatient," a future paradigm for U.S. hospitals This realization is informed by data in a new report from Deloitte, Where have the many hospital inpatient gone? The line chart illustrates Deloitte's top and bottom line: "The shift toward outpatient is happening and will likely have a tremendous impact on operations, business models, staffing, and capital. Health systems should prepare for the future today and start thinking not only about how to manage their
Tools for Paying Medical Bills Don't Help Health Consumers Manage Their Financial Health
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 24 February 2020 in Banks and health, Business and health, Connected health, Consumer experience, Design and health, Digital health, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Health apps, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health engagement, Health finance, Health insurance, Health Plans, Hospital finance, Hospitals, Money and health, Patient engagement, Patient experience, Personal health finance, Retail health, Transparency, User experience UX
There's a gap between the supply of digital health tools that hospitals and health systems offer patients, and what patients-as-consumers need for overall health and wellbeing. This chasm is illustrated in The future of the digital patient experience, the latest report from HIMSS and the Center for Connected Medicine (CCM). The big gap in supply to patients vs. demand by health consumers is highlighted by what the arrow in the chart below points to: managing payments and paying bills. Nowhere in the top 10 most commonly provided digital tools is one for price transparency, cost comparing or cost estimating. In the
Will Trade Data for (Cheaper) Health Care – USC's View of the Future
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 21 February 2020 in AI, Artificial intelligence, Behavior change, Behavioral economics, Big data and health, Broadband, Connected health, Digital health, Financial health, Health at home, Health care industry, Health care marketing, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health engagement, Privacy and security, Remote health monitoring, Robots and health, Self-care, Sensors and health, Social determinants of health, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Voice technology, Wearable tech, Wearables
Patients are now front-line payors in the U.S. health care system. As such, American health consumers are wrestling with sticker shock from surgical procedures, surprise medical bills weeks after leaving the hospital, and the cost of prescription drugs — whether six-figure oncology therapies or essential medicines like insulin and EpiPens. To manage personal health finances, patients-as-payors are increasingly willing to face trade-offs and change personal behaviors to lower health care costs, based on research in The Future of Health Care Study from USC's Center for the Digital Future. The Center analyzed the perspectives of 1,000 U.S. adults in August 2019 regarding
Americans' Top 2 Priorities for President Trump and Congress Are To Lower Health Care and Rx Costs
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 20 February 2020 in ACA, Affordable Care Act, Consumer experience, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health education, Health finance, Health literacy, Health policy, Health politics, Health reform, High deductibles, media and health, Money and health, Personal health finance, Pharmaceutical, Prescription drugs
Health care pocketbook issues rank first and second place for Americans in these months leading up to the 2020 Presidential election, according to research from POLITICO and the Harvard Chan School of Public Health published on 19th February 2020. This poll underscores that whether Democrat or Republican, these are the top two domestic priorities among Americans above all other issues polled including immigration, trade agreements, infrastructure and regulations. The point that Robert Blendon, Harvard's long-time health care pollster, notes is that, "Even among Democrats, the top issues…(are) not the big system reform debates…They're worried about their own lives, their own
Most Workers and their Employers Want to Receive Digital Healthcare On-Demand
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 19 February 2020 in Artificial intelligence, Business and health, Chronic care, Chronic disease, Connected health, Consumer experience, Design and health, Digital health, Electronic health records, Employee benefits, Employers, Financial health, Global Health, Health apps, Health benefits, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health engagement, Health insurance, Health privacy, Health reform, Mobile health, Money and health, Patient engagement, Personal health finance, Personal health records, Remote health monitoring, Social responsibility, Telehealth, Telemedicine, Trust, User experience UX, Virtual health, Wearable tech, Workplace benefits, Workplace wellness
Most employers and their workers see the benefits of digital health in helping make health care more accessible and lower-cost, according to survey research published in Health on Demand from Mercer Marsh Benefits. Interestingly, more workers living in developing countries are keener on going digital for health than people working in wealthier nations. Mercer's study was global, analyzing companies and their employees in both mature and growth economies around the world. In total, Mercer interviewed 16,564 workers and 1,300 senior decision makers in companies. The U.S. sample size was 2,051 employees and 100 decision makers. There's a treasure trove of insights
The Federal Reserve Chairman Speaks Out on Health Care Costs: "Spending But Getting Nothing"
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 17 February 2020 in Anxiety, Banks and health, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Health and wealth, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health finance, Health policy, Health politics, Health reform, Money and health, Personal health finance
On February 12, 2020, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of the U.S. submitted the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to Congress and testified to the Senate Banking Committee. Chairman Jerome Powell detailed the current state of the economy, discussing the state of the macroeconomy, GDP growth, unemployment, inflation, and projections for 2022 and beyond. The top line data points are shown in the first chart. After his prepared remarks, Chairman Powell responded to questions from members of the Senate Banking Committee. Senator Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) asked him about health care costs' impact on the national U.S. economy. The Chairman
Health@Retail Update: Kroger and Hy-Vee Morph Grocery into Health, Walmart's Health Center, CVS/housing and More
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 12 February 2020 in Amazon, Banks and health, Behavior change, Behavioral health, Business and health, Consumer electronics, Consumer experience, Design and health, Diabetes, Digital health, Financial health, Financial wellness, Food and health, Grocery stores, Health at home, Health care marketing, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Housing and health, Mental health, mHealth, Mobile health, Nutrition, Patient experience, Pharmacy, Popular culture and health, Prescription drugs, Primary care, Retail health, Self-care, Social determinants of health, Transparency
With our HealthConsuming "health is everywhere" ethos, this post updates some of the most impactful recent retail health developments shaping consumers' health/care touchpoints beyond hospitals, physicians, and health plans. For inspiration and context, I'll kick off with Roz Chast's latest New Yorker cartoon from the February 3rd 2020 issue — Strangers in the Night, taking place in a Duane Reade pharmacy. Roz really channels the scene in front of the pharmacy counter, from Q-tips to vitamins and tea. And it's hummable to the tune of, well, Strangers in the Night. Check out the 24-hour pharmacist under the pick-up sign. Now,
Health Care Costs Concern Americans Approaching Retirement – Especially Women and Sicker People
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 10 February 2020 in Aging, Baby Boomers and Health, Boomers, Demographics and health, Financial health, Financial wellness, Health and wealth, Health citizenship, Health costs, Health disparities, Health Economics, Health finance, Health insurance, Health policy, Health politics, Medication adherence, Medicines, Money and health, Personal health finance, Pharmacy, Seniors and health, Women and health
Even with the prospect of enrolling in Medicare sooner in a year or two or three, Americans approaching retirement are growing concerned about health care costs, according to a study in JAMA Network Open. The paper, Health Insurance Affordability Concerns and health Care Avoidance Among US Adults Approaching Retirement, explored the perspectives of 1,028 US adults between 50 and 64 years of age between November 2018 and March 2019. The patient survey asked one question addressing two aspects of "health care confidence:" "Please rate your confidence with the following:" Being able to afford the cost of your health insurance nad
USA Today Finds Hidden Common Ground Among Americans For Health Care
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 7 February 2020 in ACA, Affordable Care Act, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health policy, Health politics, Health privacy, Nurses, Social determinants of health
"We need to demand our health citizenship. That means our nation must approach medical treatment and data privacy as civil rights that protect everyone." This is the start of my column, Americans, let's claim our health care rights, published by USA Today today. USA Today is publishing a 10-part series called "Hidden Common Ground" addressing key issues where Americans can come together. Thus far, the series has covered climate change, and this month health care. Going forward, we'll see analyses on jobs, gun rights and violence, and immigration through May's publishing schedule. In their study conducted in December 2020, USA Today
Come Together – A Health Policy Prescription from the Bipartisan Policy Center
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 6 February 2020 in ACA, Affordable Care Act, Business and health, Education and health, Employee benefits, Employers, Health benefits, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health insurance, Health insurance exchanges, Health insurance marketplaces, Health law, Health policy, Health politics, Health privacy, Health reform, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicines, Nutrition, Pharmaceutical, Pre-existing conditions, Prescription drugs, Primary care, Privacy and security, Self-care, Single-payer health care, Social determinants of health, Social responsibility, Workplace benefits
Among all Americans, the most popular approach for improving the health care in the U.S. isn't repealing or replacing the Affordable Care Act or moving to a Medicare-for-All government-provided plan. It would be to improve the current health care system, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center's research reported in a Bipartisan Rx for America's Health Care. The BPC is a truly bipartisan organization, co-founded by Former Democratic Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and George Mitchell, and Former Republican Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker and Bob Dole. While this political week in America has revealed deep chasms between the Dems and
What's Causing Fewer Primary Care Visits in the US?
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 5 February 2020 in ACA, Affordable Care Act, Design and health, Employee benefits, Employers, Health benefits, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health Plans, Health policy, Health politics, Health reform, Physicians, Primary care, Retail health, Self-care, Social determinants of health, Telehealth
Americans who have commercial health insurance (say, through an employer or union) are rarely thought to face barriers to receiving health care — in particular, primary care, that front line provider and on-ramp to the health care system. But in a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, commercially-insured adults were found to have visited primary care providers (PCPs) less often, and 1 in 2 had no PCP visits in one year. In Declining Use of Primary Care Among Commercially Insured Adults in the United States, 2008-2016, the researchers analyzed data from a national sample of adult health
The State of the Union for Prescription Drug Prices
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 4 February 2020 in Bio/life sciences, Business and health, Cancer, Children's health, Diabetes, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Health benefits, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health insurance, Health law, Health policy, Health politics, Pharmaceutical, Pharmacy, Prescription drugs
Tonight, President Trump will present his fourth annual State of the Union address. This morning we don't have a transcript of the speech ahead of the event, but one topic remains high on U.S. voters' priorities, across political party – prescription drug prices. Few issues unite U.S. voters in 2020 quite like supporting Medicare's ability to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, shown by the October 2019 Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll. Whether Democrat, Independent, or Republican, most people living in America favor government intervention in regulating the cost of medicines in some way. In this poll, the top
A Uniting Issue in the United States is Lowering Prescription Drug Costs
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 31 January 2020 in ACA, Health citizenship, Health costs, Health Economics, Health insurance, Health policy, Health politics, Health reform, Health regulation, Medicare, Money and health, Pharmaceutical, Pharmacy, Prescription drugs, Trust
Health care continues to be the top-ranked voting issue in the U.S. looking to the November 2020 Presidential and Congressional elections. The Kaiser Family Foundation conducts the monthly poll which gauges U.S. adults' perspectives on health care, and this month's January 2020 Kaiser Health Tracking Poll explores Americans' views on broad healthcare reform plans and specific medical policy issues. Overall, Americans point to prescription drug costs and the preservation of the Affordable Care Act's protections for people with pre-existing conditions, the first chart tells us. Third and fourth on voters' minds are protecting patients from surprise medical bills and better
Most Americans Regardless of Income Say It's Unfair for Wealthier People to Get Better Health Care
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 30 January 2020 in Behavioral economics, Cancer, Deaths of despair, Demographics and health, Financial health, Financial wellness, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health Economics, Health equity, Health insurance, Health policy, Health politics, Medicines, Money and health, Pharmaceutical, Pharmacy, Prescription drugs
In America, earning lower or middle incomes is a risk factor for having trouble accessing health care and/or paying for it. But most Americans, rich or not, believe that it's unfair for wealthier people to get better health care, according to a January 2020 poll from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard Chan School of Public Health, Life Experiences and Income Equality in the United States. The survey was conducted in July and August 2019 among 1,885 U.S. adults 18 or older. Throughout the study, note the four annual household income categories gauged in the research: Top 1%
Income Inequality is Fostering Mis-Trust, the Edelman 2020 Trust Barometer Observes
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 23 January 2020 in AI, Business and health, Corporate responsibility, Employers, Financial health, Financial wellness, Guns and health, Health and wealth, Health care industry, Health citizenship, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health policy, Hospitals, Jobs and health, media and health, Money and health, Primary care, Public health, Social responsibility, Sustainability, Transparency, Trust
Economic development has historically built trust among nations' citizens. But in developed, wealthier parts of the world, like the U.S., "a record number of countries are experiencing an all-time high 'mass-class' trust divide," according to the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer. For 20 years, Edelman has released its annual Trust Barometer every year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, recognizing the importance of trust in the global economy and society. Last year, it was the employer who was the most-trusted touch-point in citizens' lives the world over, I discussed in Health Populi one year ago. This year, even our employers can't
Consumers Seek Benefits From Food, a Personal Social Determinant of Health
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 22 January 2020 in Behavior change, Children's health, Chronic disease, Consumer-directed health, Deaths of despair, Demographics and health, Diabetes, Food and health, Grocery stores, Health and wealth, Health at home, Health benefits, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health Economics, Health ecosystem, Health education, Health policy, Heart health, Moms and health, Money and health, Noncommunicable disease, Nutrition, Obesity, Prevention, Prevention and wellness, Retail health, Self-care, Shopping and health, Social determinants of health, Suicide, Weight loss, Wellbeing, Wellness
As consumers in the U.S. wrestle with accessing and paying for medical benefits, there's another sort of health benefit people increasingly understand, embrace, and consume: food-as-medicine. More people are taking on the role of health consumers as they spend more out-of-pocket on medical care and insurance, and seeking food to bolster their health is part of this behavior change. One in four Americans seek health benefits from food, those who don't still seek the opportunity to use food for weight loss goals, heart health and energy boosting, according to the 2019 Food & Health Survey from the International Food Information
Trust Is the Currency for Consumer Health Engagement – A Bottom-Line at CES 2020
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 10 January 2020 in Aging and Technology, AI, Artificial intelligence, Autonomous cars, Big data and health, Bioethics, Blockchain, Boomers, Cognitive computing and health, Computers and health, Connected health, Consumer electronics, Consumer experience, Data analytics and health, Digital health, Health care industry, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health engagement, Health privacy, HIPAA, Internet of things, Patient engagement, Personalized medicine, Popular culture and health, Privacy and security, Quality, Transparency, Trust, User experience UX, Voice technology, Wearables
There's less talk about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency at #CES2020. The most important currency under discussion is Trust. We have begun a consumer electronics migration from the past decade of the Internet of Things to this next decade of the Intelligence of Things. The different "I's" signal the transition from devices that have connected to the Internet and generated data from our everyday lives, to the next ten years of gathering that data, mashing it up for meaning, and feeding back intelligence to users in the form of advising, coaching, nudging — with potentially powerful feedback loops for health, wellness and
The Internet of Teeth – The Growth of Oral Health at CES 2020
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 7 January 2020 in Artificial intelligence, Behavioral economics, Business and health, Chronic care, Cognitive computing and health, Connected health, Consumer electronics, Consumer experience, Data analytics and health, Dental care, Design and health, Digital health, Health at home, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Oral care, Prevention and wellness, Remote health monitoring, Retail health, Self-care, Shopping and health
The presence of health and medicine is growing at CES, the annual conference of all-things-tech for consumers. At this week's Show in Las Vegas, we see that the Internet of Healthy Things (a phrase coined by Dr. Joe Kvedar) has taken hold and gone mainstream in remote health monitoring, wearable tech, and heart rate tracking which is now embedded (and expected by health-seeking consumers) in wristbands. An expanding category in the Internet of Healthy Things is oral care. Let's call this the Internet of Teeth, yet another riff on "IoT." Of course, oral health goes well beyond teeth and toothbrushes.
In 2020, PwC Expects Consumers to Grow DIY Healthcare Muscles As Medical Prices Increase
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 11 December 2019 in Amazon, Connected health, Consumer experience, Consumer-directed health, Data analytics and health, Design and health, Digital health, Employers, Financial health, Financial toxicity, GDPR, Health benefits, Health care industry, Health care information technology, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Health marketing, Health Plans, Health policy, Health politics, Health privacy, Health reform, Health regulation, Hospitals, Internet of things, Jobs and health, Medical innovation, Money and health, Patient experience, Pharmaceutical, Pharmacy, Prescription drugs, Primary care, Retail health, Robots, Robots and health, Self-care, Social responsibility, User experience UX, Value based health, Venture capital and health, Workplace benefits, Workplace wellness
The new year will see a "looming tsunami" of high prices in healthcare, regulation trumping health reform, more business deals reshaping the health/care industry landscape, and patients growing do-it-yourself care muscles, according to Top health industry issues of 2020: Will digital start to show an ROI from the PwC Health Research Institute. I've looked forward to reviewing this annual report for the past few years, and always learn something new from PwC's team of researchers who reach out to experts spanning the industry. In this 14th year of the publication, PwC polled executives from payers, providers, and pharma/life science organizations. Internally,
Medicare Members Are Health Consumers, Too – Our AHIP Talk About Aging, Digital Immigrants, and Personalizing Health/Care
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 10 December 2019 in Aging, Aging and Technology, Amazon, Boomers, Chronic disease, Connected health, Consumer experience, Design and health, Digital health, Financial health, Grocery stores, Health apps, Health benefits, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health engagement, Health insurance, Health literacy, Health Plans, Health social networks, Medicare, Medication adherence, Patient engagement, Patient experience, Pharmacy, Physicians, Prescription drugs, Self-care, Seniors and health, Social determinants of health, User experience UX, Voice technology
As Boomers age, they're adopting mobile and smart technology platforms that enable people to communicate with loved ones, manage retirement investment portfolios, ask Alexa to play Frank Sinatra's greatest hits, and manage prescription refills from the local grocery store pharmacy. Last week, the Giant Eagle grocery chain was the first pharmacy retailer to offer a new medication management skill via Alexa. That program has the potential to change our Medicare members manage meds at home to ensure better adherence, supporting better health outcomes and personal feelings of efficacy and control. [As an aside, consumers really value pharmacies embedded in grocery
The Patient As Payor: Workers Covered by Employer Health Insurance Spend 11.5% of Household Incomes on Premiums and Deductibles
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 5 December 2019 in Affordable Care Act, Anxiety, Business and health, Consumer experience, Consumer-directed health, Corporate wellness, Employee benefits, Employers, Financial health, Financial wellness, Health and wealth, Health benefits, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health insurance, Health Plans, Health politics, High deductibles, Patient experience, Personal health finance, Uninsured, Workplace benefits, Workplace wellness
Workers covered by health insurance through their companies spend 11.5% of their household income on health insurance premiums and deductibles based on The Commonwealth Fund's latest report on employee health care costs, Trends in Employer Health Coverage, 2008-2018: Higher Costs for Workers and Their Families. The topline of this study is that average annual growth in employer premiums rose faster between 2016 and 2017, by about 5% for both single and family plans. The bottom line for families is that workers' premium payments grew faster than median incomes did over the ten years 2008 to 2018. Average deductibles also outpaced
Being Transparent About Healthcare Transparency – My Post on the Medecision Blog
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 4 December 2019 in Consumer-directed health, Health benefits, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health finance, Health insurance, Health Plans, Health policy, Health politics, Hospitals, Transparency
With new rules emanating from the White House this month focusing on health care price transparency, health care costs are in the spotlight at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. A hospital transparency mandate will go into effect in January 2021 as a final rule, and a second rule with a focus on health plans and friendly explanations-of-benefits will receive comments in the Federal Register until January 14, 2020. As patients continue to grow muscles as payors and health consumers, transparency is one key to enabling people to "shop" for those health care and medical products and services that
Despite Greater Digital Health Engagement, Americans Have Worse Health and Financial Outcomes Than Other Nations' Health Citizens
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 2 December 2019 in Artificial intelligence, Behavioral economics, Caregivers, Chronic disease, Computers and health, Connected health, Data analytics and health, Digital health, Financial health, Financial wellness, Fitness, Global Health, Health apps, Health at home, Health care industry, Health care information technology, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Health policy, Health privacy, Health ratings and report cards, Heart health, High deductibles, Hospitals, Internet and Health, Medical technology, Medication adherence, Medicines, Mobile health, Patient engagement, Pharmaceutical, Pharmacy, Prescription drugs, Prevention, Privacy and security, Remote health monitoring, Robots, Robots and health, Self-care, Telehealth, Virtual health, Voice technology, Wearable tech, Wellness
The idea of health care consumerism isn't just an American discussion, Deloitte points out in its 2019 global survey of healthcare consumers report, A consumer-centered future of health. The driving forces shaping health and health care around the world are re-shaping health care financing and delivery around the world, and especially considering the growing role of patients in self-care — in terms of financing, clinical decision making and care-flows. With that said, Americans tend to be more healthcare-engaged than peer patients in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, Deloitte's poll found. Some of the key behaviors
Hospitals Suffer Decline in Consumer Satisfaction
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 27 November 2019 in Consumer experience, Consumer-directed health, Design and health, Doctors, Emergency care, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Grocery stores, Health apps, Health benefits, Health care industry, Health care marketing, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health engagement, Health finance, Health law, Health Plans, Health policy, High deductibles, Hospitals, Money and health, Patient engagement, Patient experience, Personal health finance, Physicians, Popular culture and health, Primary care, Retail health, Self-care, Shopping and health, Transparency, Value based health
While customer satisfaction with health insurance plans slightly increased between 2018 and 2019, patient satisfaction with hospitals fell in all three settings where care is delivered — inpatient, outpatient, and the emergency room, according to the 2018-2019 ACSI Finance, Insurance and Health Care Report. ACSI polls about 300,000 U.S. consumers each year to gauge satisfaction with over 400 companies in 46 industries. For historic trends, you can check out my coverage of the 2014 version of this study here in Health Populi. The 2019 ACSI report bundles finance/banks, insurance (property/casualty, life and health) and hospitals together in one document. Health
Longevity Stalls Around the World And Wealth, More Concentrated
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 22 November 2019 in Baby health, Cancer, Chronic disease, Death, Demographics and health, Diabetes, Education and health, Financial health, Financial wellness, Food and health, Global Health, Health and wealth, Health benefits, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health ecosystem, Health education, Health equity, Health policy, Health social networks, Mental health, Money and health, Noncommunicable disease, Nutrition, Obesity, Opioids, Population health, Primary care, Public health, Safety net and health, Social determinants of health, Wellbeing
Two separate and new OECD reports, updating health and the global economic outlook, raise two issues that are inter-related: that gains in longevity are stalling, with chronic illnesses and mental ill health affecting more people; and, as wealth grows more concentrated among the wealthy, the economic outlook around most of the world is also slowing. First, we'll mine the Health at a Glance 2019 annual report covering data on population health, health system performance, and medical spending across OECD countries. The first chart arrays the x-y data points of life expectancy versus health spending for each of the OECD countries
Social Determinants of Health – My Early Childhood Education and Recent Learnings, Shared at the HealthXL Global Gathering
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 20 November 2019 in Children's health, Consumer experience, Corporate responsibility, Death, Demographics and health, Education and health, Environment and heatlh, Financial health, Fitness, Food and health, Grocery stores, Health and wealth, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health ecosystem, Health equity, Health Plans, Health policy, Health politics, Health social networks, Healthcare access, Hospitals, Kids' health, Loneliness, Love and health, Medicare, Mental health, Money and health, Mortality, Noncommunicable disease, Nutrition, Pain, Pharmaceutical, Physicians, Popular culture and health, Prescription drugs, Prevention and wellness, Public health, Safety net and health, Schools and health, Seniors and health, Social determinants of health, Social isolation, Social networks and health, Social responsibility, Violence and health, Wellbeing
My cousin Arlene got married in Detroit at the classic Book Cadillac Hotel on July 23, 1967, a Sunday afternoon wedding. When Daddy drove us back out to our suburban home about 30 minutes from the fancy hotel, the car radio was tuned to WWJ Newsradio 950, all news all the time. As soon as Daddy switched on the radio, we were shocked by the news of a riot breaking out in the city, fires and looting and gunshots and chaos in the Motor City. Two days later, my father, who did business with Mom-and-Pop retail store owners in the
More Evidence of Self-Rationing as Patients Morph into Healthcare Payors
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 19 November 2019 in ACA, Affordable Care Act, Boomers, Demographics and health, Financial health, Financial wellness, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health insurance, Health policy, Health politics, High deductibles, Hospitals, Medicare, Medication adherence, Medicines, Money and health, Personal health finance, Prescription drugs, Shopping and health, Transparency
Several new studies reveal that more patients are feeling and living out their role as health care payors as medical spending vies with other household line items. This role of patient-as-the-payor crosses consumers' ages and demographics, and is heating up health care as the top political issue for the 2020 elections at both Federal and State levels. In research from HealthPocket, 2 in 5 Americans said they needed to reduce other household expenses to be able to afford their monthly insurance premiums. Four in ten consumers said their monthly health insurance premiums were increasing. One in four people in the
A Tale of Two Americas as Told by the 2019 OECD Report on Health
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 7 November 2019 in Chronic disease, Death, Demographics and health, Diabetes, Doctors, Employers, Exercise, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Food and health, GDPR, Global Health, Health and wealth, Health benefits, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health Economics, Health ecosystem, Health equity, Health policy, Health politics, Health privacy, Health reform, Hospitals, Mental health, Money and health, Obesity, Primary care, Privacy and security, Public health, Social determinants of health
It was the best of times, It was the worst of times, It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, … starts Dickens' Tale of Two Cities. That's what came to my mind when reading the latest global health report from the OECD, Health at a Glance 2019, which compares the United States to other nations' health care outcomes, risk factors, access metrics, and spending. Some trends are consistent across the wealthiest countries of the world, many sobering, such as: Life expectancy rates fell in 19 of the
The Link Between Wellness & Wealth Is Powerful for Everyone – and Especially Women
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 6 November 2019 in Affordable Care Act, Chronic disease, Financial health, Financial wellness, Guns and health, Health and wealth, Health benefits, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health finance, Health insurance, Health insurance marketplaces, Health Plans, Health policy, Health politics, Money and health, Stress
In the U.S., the link between wellness and wealth, money and health, is strong and common across people, young and old. But the impacts of money on health, well-being, and life choices varies across the ages, based on a study from Lively, a company that builds platforms for health savings accounts. The first chart illustrates that health care costs challenge people in many ways: the most obvious health care cost problems prevent people from saving more for retirement or paying down debt. Eight in 10 Americans concur that rising health care costs challenge their ability to save for retirement. Beyond the
Great Expectations for Health Care: Patients Look for Consumer Experience and Trust in Salesforce's Latest Research
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 5 November 2019 in Anxiety, Business and health, Connected health, Consumer experience, Design and health, Digital health, Financial health, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Health apps, Health at home, Health benefits, Health care industry, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health ecosystem, Health education, Health engagement, Health IT, Health Plans, Health policy, Health politics, Health reform, Hospitals, Medical technology, Medication adherence, Medicines, Mental health, Money and health, Patient experience, Personal health finance, Pharmaceutical, Self-care, Trust
On the demand side of U.S. health care economics, patients are now payors as health consumers with more financial skin in paying medical bills. As consumers, people have great expectations from the organizations on the supply side of health care — providers (hospitals and doctors), health insurance plans, pharma and medical device companies. But as payors, health consumers face challenges in getting care, so great expectations are met with frustration and eroding trust with the system, according to the latest Connected Healthcare Consumer report from Salesforce published today as the company announced expansion of their health cloud capabilities. This is
Thinking About Health Care One Year From the 2020 Presidential Election
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 4 November 2019 in ACA, Business and health, Corporate responsibility, Corporate wellness, Doctors, Employee benefits, Employers, Financial wellness, Health benefits, Health care industry, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health disparities, Health Economics, Health ecosystem, Health equity, Health insurance, Health law, Health Plans, Health policy, Health politics, Medicare, Nurses, Public health, Social responsibility, Trust
Today is 4th November 2019, exactly one year to the day that Americans can express their political will and cast their vote for President of the United States. Health care will be a key issue driving people to their local polling places, so it's an opportune moment to take the temperature on U.S. voters' perspectives on healthcare reform. This post looks at three current polls to gauge how Americans are feeling about health care reform 365 days before the 2020 election, and one day before tomorrow's 2019 municipal and state elections. Today's Financial Times features a poll that found two-thirds
Will Consumers Cross the Cost-and-Trust Chasm Between Prescription Drugs and Hospitals?
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 29 October 2019 in Bio/life sciences, Biotech, Consumer experience, Financial toxicity, Health care industry, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health ecosystem, Health policy, Health politics, Hospitals, Medicare, Medication adherence, Medicines, Money and health, Pharmaceutical, Physicians, Prescription drugs, Retail health, Social determinants of health, Specialty drugs, Transparency
People in the U.S. rank prescription drugs, lab tests, emergency room visits, dental and vision care, preventive services, chronic disease management and mental health care as the "most essential" health care services, according to the 2019 Survey of America's Patients conducted by The Physicians Foundation. When asked what factors contribute to rising health care costs in America, most consumers cite the cost of prescription drugs. Taken together, these two data points demonstrate the potent political import of prescription drug prices as the U.S. approaches the 2020 Presidential election. The Physicians Foundation surveyed 2,001 U.S. adults between 27 and 75 years
While Costs Are A Top Concern Among Most U.S. Patients, So Are Challenges of Poverty, Food, and Housing
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 28 October 2019 in Financial health, Financial toxicity, Financial wellness, Food and health, Health care industry, Health care marketing, Health citizenship, Health Consumers, Health costs, Health Economics, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Health policy, Health politics, Health reform, Money and health, Single-payer health care, Social determinants of health, Social responsibility, Universal health care
Rising health care costs continue to concern most Americans, with one in two people believing they're one sickness away from getting into financial trouble, according to the 2019 Survey of America's Patients conducted for The Physicians Foundation. In addition to paying for "my" medical bills, most people in the U.S. also say that income inequality and inadequate social services significantly contribute to high medical spending for every health citizen in the nation. The Physicians Foundation conducts this study into Americans' views on the U.S. health care system every other year. This year's poll was conducted in September 2019 and included input
Jane will lead a TweetChat with Microsoft to brainstorm AI in health care in and beyond the pandemic - 01/26/2021
Jane will moderate a chat on Twitter to brainstorm artificial intelligence in health care, in and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. I'll be joined by Microsoft's Tom Lawry (@TCLawry) on the tweetchat; Tom is Microsoft's National Director for AI, Health & Life Sciences. To follow our discussion, we'll use the hashtag #MicrosoftAI.