Mohammad Al-Ubaydli’s blog

Good Health is Good Business

For the last couple of months I have been digesting the book Good Health is Good Business as I think through its implications for Patients Know Best. I had only thought of providers and patients as markets for my software, but now payers seem a significant possibility. I had originally dismissed this because insurance companies had the wrong incentives, and besides the more progressive ones were convinced they should build their own versions.

But the book discusses the incentives for employers to manage the wellness of their employees, and my software should support wellness. But enough about me. The rest of this post is about the points that I learned the most from.

First was the point that insurance companies have no incentive to improve the health of the patient, only to quickly process the claims for illnesses. By contrast, employers should pay to maintain their employees’ wellness because paying for illness is much more expensive, and maintaining wellness is possible. Here is the full list of reasons that Dr. David Rearick gives for employers to get involved, and its analogue in the UK is the government as payer rather than provider:

1. You are the payer, and you have the incentive
2. You are not big enough for anyone else to care (this is less the case in the UK)
3. The health of your employees is the only factor under your control
4. You have a captive audience
5. You can motivate your employees