A Connected Care Ecosystem: Improving Diagnoses And Outcomes, Lowering Costs

By combining empathy, advocacy, and technology along with an integrated, connected healthcare ecosystem, these healthcare solutions deliver personalized whole-person experiences. They address disease prevention or management, integrate every aspect of care to proactively prevent or catch health threats sooner, build trust and confidence in care, and address high-cost drivers. That can translate into greater healthcare value, streamlined costs, and improved outcomes.

A Broader, More Holistic View Of Care

Transforming healthcare means removing barriers, improving access, and ensuring that everyone can be as healthy as possible. For this reason, integrated, connected care is critical for your employees. It puts them at the center of the equation to create a whole-health approach that considers not only physical health factors, but also behavioral and social factors. 

Taking a person-centered approach means addressing problems through interrelated platforms, programs, and services. These tools are designed to help educate, empower, advocate, and guide individuals to the right care at the right time from the right provider, based on what’s most important to them. The result is more direct communication among patients, doctors, and other health professionals.

Results Of Connected Care In Action

Making healthcare affordable means capitalizing on digital communication for cost transparency and employee engagement to get members to the right care. Anthem, for instance, uses the Sydney^SM Health app to link members to its healthcare ecosystem. Sydney Health learns with every interaction and adapts based on employees’ individual needs, recommending custom health actions and eliminating gaps in care while lowering care costs.

For better disease prevention and management, Sydney Health connects high-cost, high-risk employees with chronic conditions or serious health risks directly to programs to lower risks and manage care. To demonstrate, Lark, Anthem’s 26-week diabetes prevention program available through Sydney Health, combines artificial intelligence, digital nutrition therapy, a wireless connected scale, and convenient online health coaching to help members set and reach weight goals that lower their risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

First, Lark sends quarterly emails to identify members at risk of developing diabetes, honing the educational message through data analytics, and testing for effectiveness to enroll. Approximately 42% of members at risk for diabetes, who tracked their weight through the program, achieved their target weight loss, compared to 20-36% of people using other diabetes prevention program delivery modes.¹ In one year, Lark saves $826-953 in cost savings per member, providing a cost-effective, outcomes-based tool.

Access To Care How, When, And Where Employees Want It

In addition to Lark, Sydney Health including a symptom checker, provider finder, virtual care center, mental health resources, digital coaching, other disease management programs, a nutrition tracker, and health and wellness programs. From checking symptoms to connecting to a virtual care doctor, apps like Sydney Health make care by video, text, or live chat a viable option.

If an employee uses a virtual doctor and needs an in-person visit, Sydney Health’s Personalized Match capability simplifies navigation so employees can quickly find nearby doctors and high-quality, cost-effective care. The health information from the virtual care visit is automatically available for reference during an in-person doctor visit, allowing for seamless information sharing among doctors.

Engaging employees with benefit, care, and lifestyle digital tools, improving care team communications through whole-person care, and offering greater cost transparency in a connected ecosystem drive better health outcomes and cost efficiencies for everyone. That makes healthcare smarter, simpler, and more accessible than ever before — at every moment of an employee’s healthcare journey.

¹Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Impact of participant characteristics on weight loss in the National Diabetes Prevention Program (2012-2021)

Sydney Health is offered through an arrangement with Carelon Digital Platforms, a separate company offering mobile application services on behalf of your health plans.