Consumer sentiment toward wellness and overall health has changed significantly over the last two decades. According to the Department of Labor, chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and pulmonary conditions are on the increase, driving up the cost of health care in Americans. The problem is not isolated to a single generation, with younger generations also susceptible to such diseases. Fortunately, consumer health awareness in popular culture has increased, resulting in several service sectors catering to a healthier lifestyle. For example, restaurants now offer healthier menu choices; grocery stores carry organic and locally sourced alternatives; and shopping services and meal planning organizations have incorporated healthy lifestyle programming.
Following this trend is the healthcare industry. Concierge type doctors have moved from a purely reactive treatment model to a model that includes preventive care, and fitness clubs and boutique workout classes have become so popular that a social competition as to one's fitness characterizes some communities. Entirely new industries are being created, such as wearable biometric tracking devices, and more and more services are offering consumers the ability to order their own diagnostic tests without the need for personal physician involvement.
From an employer perspective, chronic diseases are increasing work absenteeism and reduced job performance, and employer-sponsored wellness programs are gaining popularity as a means to motivate employees to improve their health and, thereby, their economic value. Approximately half of U.S. employers now offer wellness programs, including screening and health interventions. This increased emphasis on wellness, whether from employer-sponsored programs and incentives or from individual motivations for a healthier lifestyle, consumers have become more actively engaged in their health. People are more willing to invest in their wellness than ever before.
However, indications are that these efforts are falling short of expectations. Roughly two out of three U.S. adults are overweight or obese, and the prevalence of obesity in younger Americans is on the rise. Healthcare costs continue to grow at alarming rates, and employers are not seeing the cost savings or productivity gains they had hoped from wellness initiatives.
It remains to be seen if wearable biometric tracking devices will result in sustained engagement by their users.
Interestingly, health insurance companies may know more about the health of their insured customers than the customers themselves. Prior to accepting applicants in an insurance pool, such as with life insurance applicants, many types of insurance carriers require medical exams to collect physical readings and take fluid samples. They then use that information to establish a risk category or class for each applicant. In fact, insurance carriers usually contract with third party labs to analyze the collected physical data and fluid samples and provide a detailed report to the carrier on the applicant. For example, Quest Diagnostics, Inc. has a division called ExamOne that provides lab testing-based health assessments for common conditions such as diabetes and heart disease to insurance carriers, and they provide a testing results interface that may be accessed by an insurance applicant that has undergone testing over the internet. However, third party testing organizations such as ExamOne do not provide to their carrier customers or to the insurance applicants a way to understand those testing results within a community context, nor provide any perspective on how a testing applicant should interpret those testing results. An applicant might be able to find a physician that has access to standard norms in a community to advise an applicant as to their standing as compared to others, but rarely does an applicant provide access to a physician to review their testing results unless the physician was the original requestor. Hence, third party testing companies remain in a hidden background of applicant services to assist insurance providers with risk assessment services during the insurance application process while leaving the applicant out of the information loop.
Hence, the question remains what type of systems and services would result in sustained health awareness by the populace, and how should such services be presented? What is needed is a system to allow users to understand their health position relative to the community in which they live as well as foster a competitive attitude toward good health, and identify situations in which a person's health that can be immediately addressed with preventative care response when needed. Such a system would be more effectively adopted if incorporated into or affiliated with an insurance application process, such as when an applicant applies for life insurance.