Staying healthy isn’t always easy, but by working together, in Nevada and nationwide, we can reach a bold goal, to improve the health of communities 20 percent by 2020.
With a holistic approach to health care focused on disease prevention, reducing disease progression and rewarding healthy choices we can maximize the number of “healthy days” people experience for the rest of their lives.
What’s a healthy day? The concept is based on a measurement for population health developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Healthy days take into account physical and mental health. Healthy days are days spent with family and friends instead of emergency rooms or hospitals. They are days when breathing is easy and blood sugars are well-controlled. They are days filled with promise and the sense of well-being.
For too long, our health care system has emphasized treating sickness rather than supporting wellness. The system has become a complex and difficult maze to maneuver and has resulted in countless missed opportunities to prevent disease.
Tackling this problem requires us to rethink routine, to embrace simplicity.
By engaging modern analytics and technology to identify, communicate and close gaps in health care, patients can work with their physicians to prevent more serious conditions. Gaps, such as an overdue mammogram or flu shot, can now be easily identified and communicated to patients and their doctors.
In fact, since Humana’s Bold Goal kicked off in 2014, it has identified 4.3 million instances where recommended care wasn’t received and then communicated that information to members and their physicians.
Improving the health of our community by 20 percent by 2020 is an achievable goal if we work together and embrace change. Change can be difficult, but often leads to new innovations and a better way of doing things.
We hope the changes we make, along with our members and health care provider partners, toward meeting our Bold Goal will improve our entire health care system in the process.
Dr. Steven J. Wininger is desert states medical director for Humana Medicare.