Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Inside UnitedHealthcare’s Latest Employer Health Insights

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Inside UnitedHealthcare’s Latest Employer Health Insights · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  This is where health insurance leadership comes together.
• 0:05
  Becker's fourth annual spring payer issues roundtable brings
• 0:08
  together over 400
• 0:10
  payer and health plan executives and more than
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  100 speakers to Chicago April.
• 0:16
  This year's event includes keynote conversations with the
• 0:19
  industry's top leaders and former president George w
• 0:23
  Bush. For the full agenda and event details,
• 0:25
  visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
• 0:31
  here in Chicago.
• 0:33
  Hello, everyone. This is Jacob Emerson with the
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  Becker's Payer Issues podcast. Thrilled today to be
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  joined by Craig Kurzweil, who is the chief
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  data and analytics officer for UnitedHealthcare's
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  commercial business. Craig, thanks so much for taking
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  the time to be with me on the
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  podcast this morning. Thanks for having me. Absolutely.
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  And before we dive into everything we wanna
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  talk with you about, Craig, can you first
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  tell us a little bit more about yourself
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  and what it is that you do at
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  UnitedHealthcare?
• 0:59
  Sure. That sounds good.
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  So, I lead our data and analytics,
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  and reporting for all of our employer customers.
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  I've been with the company for about twenty
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  just just over twenty one years now,
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  and I spent that entire time
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  focused on how do we translate
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  massive amounts of data
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  into something interesting and hopefully actionable
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  for our employer clients through different iterations. So,
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  I'm a data nerd at our at my
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  heart and love to kinda dive in to
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  see what's happening and how we can use
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  that data to drive better results.
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  Fantastic. Well, in that vein, Craig, UnitedHealthcare,
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  as you know, releases findings every year through
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  a white paper that you do with the
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  health action council
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  where you analyze member data for wider health
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  care trends.
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  So it's the ninth year of this of
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  this paper, that you that you've published. And
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  I wonder if our audience might not be
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  familiar, can you give them a sense of
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  what exactly this report is, what data it
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  draws from, and and how it's evolved over,
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  nearly a decade now?
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  Sure. I it's been a very fun journey,
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  with the Health Action Council. It's a very
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  unique collaboration partnership where for an analytic person,
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  especially,
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  because within the health action council, we have,
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  over 225,000
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  members within,
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  health action council that we can leverage on
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  a de identified basis to do these kinds
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  of broad
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  view studies of what's happening across the population.
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  As you mentioned, this is our ninth year,
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  and so we've spent a lot of time
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  really trying to focus in on parts of
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  the health care system maybe that haven't
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  been focused on enough or maybe not at
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  all, and kind of really hone in on
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  those and give employers a unique perspective. So,
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  for example, we've spent a lot of time
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  in the pre COVID days, diving into generations
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  and community health and social determinants of health,
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  virtual care.
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  And post COVID, we really been focused on
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  kinda where do we go from here and
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  what are some of the new, barriers to
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  care and to cost.
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  And for and we'll talk about to the
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  this study, but really focusing on how the
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  community has a lot to do with what
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  happens across these populations. So it's really been
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  a unique partnership, and that kind of membership
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  allows you to do some really creative things.
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  And and, honestly, the Health Action Council kinda
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  thinking differently and allowing us the space to
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  come up with studies that are different from
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  the mainstream is, is is been wonderful,
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  from an analytic person's point of view. So
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  lots of really, really interesting ways to kinda
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  see what's happening across the system.
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  Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. And
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  I I read through the report myself. There's
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  a lot in it, a lot of different
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  areas of focus for employers. So I wonder
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  if we starting off broadly, just talking about
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  some of the results. Anything this year that
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  surprised you?
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  Sure. I think there's a a few things
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  that kinda jump out to me, and I've
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  lived in data for, like, twenty one years.
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  And it's hard to surprise me these days.
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  But there's a few things that I think
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  are
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  changing and maybe different than what people might
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  anticipate. So as we start to dive into
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  the data,
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  and we're really focused in, in this study
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  trying to look to see,
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  how do generational
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  and gender influences,
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  impact
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  what we see around cost utilization and affordability.
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  And and of of the findings for this
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  year, there's kinda three main areas.
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  One being, you know, we typically assume that
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  the younger population
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  is,
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  low cost, kind of invincible. Right?
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  Not really haven't really developed a lot of
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  chronic disease yet in their their younger population.
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  But we're starting to see that change a
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  bit. And we're starting to see some of
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  those younger folks. They're still definitely lower cost
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  and lower chronic disease than their older generational
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  counterparts, of course. But we're starting to see
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  them rise at a higher rate than we've
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  seen in the past. So they're kinda catching
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  up, so to speak to some of those
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  older populations.
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  And if you think about employers, typically,
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  the focus
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  forever has been how do we manage the
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  risk in the older population because that's where
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  more of the cost is driven by. This
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  might change, some of those strategies or maybe
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  rethink where we dedicate some of the strategies.
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  And as part of that rise in the
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  younger population,
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  a big piece of that is that catastrophic
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  health events, are becoming way more frequent.
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  So we're seeing a rapid influx in the
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  number of catastrophic claimants are now twice as
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  common as they were five years ago. And
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  we're seeing that not only just for the
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  younger generation, but for all generations, you know,
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  rise of the number of people
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  reaching, a 100,000.
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  And it's but it's no longer focused on
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  just the older sicker population.
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  It's focused everywhere. And kind of the third
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  point that I'd focus in on and, obviously,
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  a hot topic always is metabolic conditions.
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  So we're starting to see them rise, more
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  sharply.
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  We're seeing we're starting to see metabolic symptoms
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  rise
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  quicker in some of the younger populations as
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  well and and within men.
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  In particular, we see that,
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  those men that are struggling with metabolic conditions,
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  so think diabetes, obesity, hypertension,
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  much greater health risks, much higher costs,
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  and, specifically,
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  men with those metabolic issues,
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  have much higher risk of some of the
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  catastrophic events such as heart attack, stroke, and
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  surgeries where we see a seven times greater
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  risk within that population. So,
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  the three main areas that I just would
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  focus in on is the rise of the
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  cost in the youth population,
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  catastrophic claimants start to become much more frequent,
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  and then the rise of metabolic conditions across
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  all populations, especially in men.
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  And, Craig, let's dive into that a little
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  bit more in terms of the the rise
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  in care costs for the younger population because
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  that seems like a huge
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  concern for employers.
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  Now a population that maybe in the past
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  was not a huge cost driver compared to
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  other generations.
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  And in the reports,
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  specifically, it's Gen z's year over year,
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  care spending. It jumped 18%,
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  nearly double the rate of, the the rise
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  in care costs for baby boomers. And it's
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  driven, like you mentioned,
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  a rise in catastrophic claims, forty one percent
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  increase that you noted in the report.
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  So what is this increase in in chronic
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  disease, in catastrophic care among younger workers? What
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  does that signal on the ground for their
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  employers?
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  Yeah. Two things, and they go hand in
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  hand. So first, we are seeing
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  that,
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  in younger the younger folks are starting to
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  develop
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  chronic conditions or health risks
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  at younger ages. So we're seeing obesity, hypertension,
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  behavioral health,
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  starting to pop up earlier,
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  in their natural progression.
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  That
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  development of chronic conditions
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  then leads to the opportunity. Some of those
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  folks are gonna be well managed and making
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  good choices, but we're gonna see within that
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  younger generation. They're maybe not equipped or ready,
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  to really navigate the health care system in
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  a good way, leading to those chronic diseases
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  turning into catastrophic events. So we see, again,
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  like, like, like you said, a forty one
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  percent increase in catastrophic events among younger adults,
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  driven by the rise of chronic disease as
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  well as that population
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  not being as engaged or educated on how
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  to use the health care system appropriately
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  to prevent those types of things from happening.
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  This is interesting.
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  The other part you mentioned earlier in terms
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  of some of the the differences you're noticing
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  between men and women and how they access
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  care or engage with the system,
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  overall,
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  the data showing that men have consistently lower
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  PCP engagement than women starting at age 18,
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  and that gap doesn't close until their sixties,
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  which is,
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  I mean, just wow.
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  So I wonder what is the data telling
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  you in terms of why men's health has
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  been so difficult to move the needle on
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  overall,
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  And what do you think it would actually
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  take for employers, for the health plan,
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  to change these patterns earlier in in their
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  lives?
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  Yeah. This is this is definitely a tough
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  one. This has been kind of an age
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  old sort of question. How do you engage,
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  especially the younger male population?
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  In general, what you see in the data,
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  is
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  men make decent health care choices
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  when something has happened.
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  So when you are diagnosed with a condition,
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  when you're diagnosed with diabetes or heart disease
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  or so or so on, you see that
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  men will make pretty good health care choices
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  in that space.
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  It's the before that we're worried about. It's
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  the prevention piece. It's seeing your doctor on
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  a regular basis. It's getting preventive screenings done.
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  That's where men prior to age 60
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  really have
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  wide gaps compared to their female, counterparts.
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  So it's really about how do you,
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  engage incense,
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  nudge those men to start to see that,
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  prevention matters, and you can stop these kind
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  you can stop or at least mitigate some
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  of those events from happening if you do
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  something before
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  the bad news kind of comes in from
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  a health care perspective. And really, really hard,
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  really, really challenging, but it really comes down
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  to, as you see in the study, engagement
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  with your PCP.
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  Can you
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  make it easy, make it simple,
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  make it accessible
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  for those men to be able to engage
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  their PCP? Because once that happens, we start
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  to see analytically
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  that a lot of those other gaps,
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  start to change,
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  pretty quickly.
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  Sure. No. That makes a lot of sense
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  in terms of strategy. Men are being reactive,
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  not proactive
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  to to their health. And I wonder more
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  broadly, Greg, how
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  how close do you think employers' health plans
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  are to being I being able to identify,
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  some of those high cost members,
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  like a man early on in their life,
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  early enough to intervene meaningfully.
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  And and, ultimately, what is the biggest barrier
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  to that right now? Is it is it
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  not having
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  enough or or the right data? Is it
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  the clinical programs themselves? Is it
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  getting that over that hump of, getting them
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  to be proactive and engage earlier?
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  What do you think it is that's, the
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  biggest barrier there?
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  I think and and, obviously, I'm biased, but
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  I think the data has gotten pretty good.
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  We have, the ability at a population level
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  within the employers that we work with to
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  to really
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  be able to understand
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  where the drivers are,
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  where the decisions are inappropriate.
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  So, for example, rather than kind of peanut
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  butter spreading solutions across an entire population,
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  we can hone in that it's not a
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  PCP engagement issue, and their entire population really
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  is focused on, for example, the young male
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  population
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  or a specific market or a specific,
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  age group and so on. So analytically,
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  at a population health perspective, that's gotten really
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  good. And I think most employers
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  can precisely see where the where the problems
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  are, where the focus areas should be. And
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  even at an individual level, I think analytics
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  have gotten much better as well as we
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  start to identify
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  who's at risk, who's headed down a a
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  negative path, and as quickly as we can
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  be able to outreach into that population.
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  And that's where a lot of the, clinical
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  programs that exist today are really focused. So,
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  analytically, we can find these folks as quickly
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  as possible. We can start to predict the
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  path that they're headed down and start to
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  engage them further upstream.
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  Years and years ago, it used to be
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  that your analytics were dated, and you would
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  find out that a member was headed down
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  a bad path after that event already occurred.
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  And then clinical program outreach would typically happen
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  after that event occurred as well. But analytics
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  have gotten better. Data has become more real
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  time. And now we can start to identify
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  these folks,
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  upstream,
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  guiding them into programs. So there are there
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  are programs that can help guide people into
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  leveraging primary care physicians. There's digital condition management
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  programs. There's lots of different metabolic health coaching
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  and monitoring events. For example, with the UnitedHealthcare,
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  we have level two for die for diabetes
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  that can help kinda manage those those diabetics.
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  So there are lots of opportunities out there.
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  And I think, analytically and clinically, we're now
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  at a point where we can outreach to
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  these people sooner and quicker upstream to make
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  a bigger difference in what the future is
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  going to hold. But at the end of
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  the day, it's all about engagement. We can
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  find those people early. We can have the
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  best programs in the world that would make
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  the biggest difference for that population.
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  But if you're unable to get them to
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  an engage and to sign up and to
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  participate,
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  none of that's worth it. And that's where
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  a lot of the focus is right now.
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  How do we focus on the consumer,
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  make that engagement simple, easy,
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  make that the easy choice for them versus
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  the hard choice,
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  because we know how the health care system
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  is incredibly complicated.
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  People get confused pretty easily because there's a
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  lot of different variables out there, and they
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  don't know where to go, where to get
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  the best care, what should I do next.
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  But our ability to meet the consumer where
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  they are, whether that be through digital means,
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  whether it be through telephonic advocacy means,
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  finding different ways to kind of make sure
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  it's simple and easy for them to see
• 13:44
  the way that engagement can lead to a
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  better life, you know, for these members.
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  Absolutely. And you're not just leaving employers in
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  the dark here with these findings. The report
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  is actually making seven specific recommendations
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  for employers,
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  in terms of how to achieve what we're
• 14:00
  talking about, Craig, and and it's everything from
• 14:03
  segmenting populations by generation and gender to building
• 14:07
  a men's health strategy that starts at age
• 14:09
  40. So you said data analytics gotten a
• 14:12
  lot better over the years.
• 14:15
  Are you seeing health plans and employers actually
• 14:17
  act on this kind of data, and and
• 14:20
  where do you think is there where does
• 14:22
  that gap still exist between the insights you're
• 14:24
  providing and then the execution on the ground?
• 14:28
  I think there's more action being taken by
• 14:30
  employers today than ever. And there's a a
• 14:32
  few different variables kinda driving that, but, obviously,
• 14:35
  affordability is an issue, and employers
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  are doing whatever they possibly can with their
• 14:40
  partners to help bring
• 14:42
  affordability back into a better space. As well
• 14:44
  as, many employers
• 14:46
  are are seeing are are being being are
• 14:48
  able to see on a more rapid basis
• 14:51
  that engagement in health
• 14:53
  does more than just
• 14:55
  impact,
• 14:57
  affordability in health care. If we can guide
• 14:59
  people towards better health and better engagement,
• 15:02
  they're able to see that those employees are
• 15:05
  going to be better employees. They're gonna be
• 15:07
  more productive. They're gonna be more present. So
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  it's all encompassing. It's a big issue for
• 15:11
  these employers. And I think now like I
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  said, now they're more than ever. They're starting
• 15:14
  to take action upon it. And by that
• 15:16
  action, I think it's it's really important to
• 15:18
  think about targeted approaches along these efforts. It's
• 15:22
  hard to get the the less than 40
• 15:24
  year old male population
• 15:25
  to start to engage, even the forty to
• 15:27
  fifty year old male population to engage. But
• 15:29
  if you can be focused, if you can
• 15:30
  be targeted,
• 15:32
  just like other marketing firms that have done
• 15:34
  for for decades now, If you can become
• 15:36
  that focused, you're gonna start to understand
• 15:39
  what is the best way to get this
• 15:41
  unique part of my population to engage. I
• 15:43
  might not be able to get everybody, but
• 15:45
  if I focus in the biggest outliers,
• 15:48
  I can create a strategy whether that be
• 15:50
  through communication,
• 15:51
  through digital campaigns, and so on, or even
• 15:54
  boots on the ground to get that population
• 15:56
  to engage in the various programs that a
• 15:59
  lot of these employers are offering.
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  Employers have historically offered lots of different solutions
• 16:05
  and opportunities for members,
• 16:07
  but have struggled to get people to engage
• 16:09
  in those programs. So, again, it's all about
• 16:12
  the consumer, consumer analytics, marketing based analytics, finding
• 16:16
  ways to make it simple and easy and
• 16:18
  targeted for these members to engage.
• 16:21
  Well, Craig, before we go,
• 16:23
  where where can our listeners
• 16:25
  find this report if they'd like to read
• 16:27
  it themselves? And is there anything else that
• 16:29
  we're missing today that you wanna share with
• 16:31
  them?
• 16:32
  Sure. The report is is public and available,
• 16:34
  so it's you can find it in the
• 16:36
  health action council website. You'll see it posted
• 16:38
  out there. And I, again, I would just
• 16:40
  focus on the fact that and, again, I'm
• 16:42
  very biased, but start with the data.
• 16:45
  See what's happening in your population.
• 16:47
  Cut and slice your data. Don't just look
• 16:48
  at things in aggregate. Look at the subpopulations
• 16:50
  that are driving your need.
• 16:52
  Check to see if the results that we're
• 16:54
  seeing in the study apply to you, may
• 16:56
  or may not. We we are seeing this
• 16:58
  broadly, but make sure this is applied within
• 17:00
  your population. And then focus on consumer driven
• 17:03
  targeted,
• 17:05
  solutions
• 17:06
  that can help in the specific areas that
• 17:08
  are driving affordability and health challenges within your
• 17:11
  population.
• 17:12
  Fantastic. Well, Craig, thank you very much for
• 17:15
  taking the time to chat with us here
• 17:17
  on the podcast and for breaking down these
• 17:19
  latest findings for our listeners. We really appreciate
• 17:21
  it. Thanks for having me. And to our
• 17:24
  listeners, if you'd like to listen to more
• 17:26
  podcasts from Becker's Healthcare, you can visit beckershospitalreview.com.