Last week, the healthcare industry invaded Las Vegas for the inaugural HLTH conference. More than 3,000 people from all corners of the healthcare ecosystem—providers, employers, digital health solutions, pharma, and beyond—spent four days attending interactive panels, networking with peers, and discussing the future of healthcare. We were honored to take part in the event—our Co-founder and Chief Health Officer Dr. Rajaie Batniji opened the employer-focused part of the show with a discussion on our medical trend.
In case you missed the event, here were some of our key takeaways:
- Everyone is wondering what the Amazon, JP Morgan, and Berkshire Hathaway joint healthcare venture will do. With details still light, speculating on what this new entrant’s approach will be was a popular discussion topic. However, some of the most astute noted that there are already employers with similar sized (or smaller) groups that have been using technology to try and improve healthcare for their people, like the benefits executives from Walmart and Pepsi who took the stage. The smartest employers recognized that they were running healthcare businesses long before Jamie, Warren, and Jeff issued their cri du coeur.
- Digital healthcare solutions took center stage, and employers are fueling adoption. Executives from Omada, Maven, Grand Rounds, Livongo, Hello Heart, and Doctor on Demand all discussed how their solutions are being used to augment traditional care approaches, and many talked about how employers use digital health offerings to improve their people’s health. Innovative benefits executives from AT&T, Comcast, and Bank of America who spoke at the show were encouraged by the promise of these solutions, but are rightfully focused on how they can manage the vendors and engage their employees. As the Head of Associate Experience at Fidelity said, “We’re looking for companies that are smarter at meeting our employees where they are, instead of the peanut butter approach.”
- Engagement wasn’t only top of mind for employers—insurers, providers, and digital health companies all talked about how to fuel engagement. It was encouraging to see this ecosystem of experts agree that we need to apply innovation throughout the system to help people use the right kind of healthcare to lower costs and improve health outcomes. There were various approaches outlined, but we (biasedly) thought our own Dr. Rajaie Batniji put it best, “When it comes to engagement, trust is your currency.”
Speaking of digital health solutions and employee engagement—at the show, we announced a new Partner Program and Partner Solutions designed to help employers drive more value from third party solutions.
If you have any questions on our Partner Solutions, or would be interested in attending HLTH as our guest next year, email us at info@collectivehealth.com
