Moneyball and Data Analytics

Health care benefits today are interesting. Data analytics is becoming something that is being used in a lot of different facets of business beyond just health care. In Moneyball, they were able to use analytics to put a competitive team on the field without the high dollars that typically come with a very competitive baseball team. In health care, we are able to use data analytics to enable a high-powered strategic approach to manage and consult to our group clients about the sorts of wellness initiatives we need to employ and work into the culture of their organizations. With analytics comes visibility over the claims, which then shows us what are the things on which we need to focus to support a particular group with regards to behavior and lifestyle changes in addition to wellness initiatives within the group.

One of the problems we see companies have with establishing and launching wellness programs is they do not really have any analytics behind the decisions they make. When we have a partially self-funded program from which we get claim data and we can push it through our analytics programs, it gives us visibility into understanding what needs to be done from a wellness perspective versus what just sounds good. Historically, companies would offer weight watcher programs and weight loss programs. They would offer weight training, smoking cessation and other similar programs, but without really knowing whether or not those issues were within their grip. When we have the data to analyze and push through our Wellness Decision Engine, we get visibility into the sorts of programs that would actually benefit the group. We want to spend our effort and energy on things that are going to benefit the group, not just things that sound good.