Returning Power to the Patient

The number of hurdles to acquiring health insurance and healthcare continues to increase.

A clear barrier is financial, with a very high percentage of the uninsured workplace citing cost as the reason they’re foregoing insurance. However, the cost of care itself continues to be problematic even for employees who do have health benefits.

Many times, patients are faced with deciding between getting desperately needed care and getting bills paid. Sometimes, they have to decide which health problem is actually severe enough to warrant care, leaving other needs untended.

The problems with access don’t end there. Transportation is another lesser discussed issue, causing particular problems for those in rural areas or those living with chronic illnesses. Simply understanding the options for getting to healthcare facilities is lacking for many patients.

Another common barrier is language. Especially for Hispanic populations, not being able to understand or be understood in a healthcare setting poses significant challenges to both becoming insured and receiving medical services. Sometimes this can even lead to mistakes on vital paperwork and prescriptions.

A lot of other healthcare hurdles boil down to lack of education. Without understanding what problem solving solutions are available to them, how are prospective patients supposedly to choose accurately?

Navigating the contemporary healthcare field can be like trying to walk through a wholly unknown minefield, unsure what missteps might cost dearly in the form of financial, legal or health headaches. 

This is one of the many problem areas that the Health Rosetta is committed to helping companies solve for their employees. Most of the time, employees are being left to navigate dense swaths of confusing and even conflicting data to make any kind of decision about their healthcare.

This is costly not just in terms of the care that isn’t being received; it also means that sometimes the care that is being recommended and administered is ineffective and non-evidence based.

For a lot of patients, the information (confusing or not) simply isn’t available at all. The silo model of healthcare, in which each type of care and care provider exists entirely independently with very little data sharing. This makes it very difficult for anyone to accurately compile and compare information from different sectors to make the most informed opinion. Keeping the data segmented also makes it harder for the most effective and cost sensitive solution to be found.

As we at Captiva follow the Health Rosetta’s model, we’re committed to information transparency at every level: for care providers, for companies and for the employees they benefit. We make sure that information is always available for employees when they need it so that they can make an informed decision.

A crucial part of Captiva’s ongoing model for your business as you continue to provide benefits to your employees is providing education. This ensures that employees can continue to overcome barriers to care that might arise in the continually shifting healthcare landscape.

Returning Power to the Patient was first published on: https://captivabenefitsolutions.com