Humana Study Measures Claims Costs and Absence Rate by level of Wellness Program Engagement

By Clive Riddle, May 2, 2014

Humana has released findings from their HumanaVitality Health Claims and Productivity Impact Study of Humana employees. HumanaVitality is a joint venture between Humana Inc. and Discovery Holdings, Ltd. That serves 3.5+ million members and “is a data-driven wellness and rewards program that motivates members to make healthier life choices.”

Humana touts that “the two-year study found improved health, as shown through lower health care costs and fewer unscheduled absences, among employees who actively participated in the HumanaVitality program.”

Here’s their specific findings:

• Unengaged members in both years averaged $53 more per month spent on health care claims than members who were engaged in HumanaVitality both years.
• The largest impact on health care costs was on members with lifestyle-related chronic conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes. Engaged members with these conditions had 60 percent lower health claims costs than unengaged members with these conditions.
• Another way of stating this: Unengaged members with lifestyle-related chronic conditions had 101% higher claims costs than the total population, while engaged members with these chronic conditions had 41% higher claims costs than the total population
• Unscheduled absences were 56.3 percent higher among unengaged members in both years than engaged members
• Members who were unengaged the first year but engaged the second year had 29% higher unscheduled absence and an average of $28 per month in claims costs than members who engaged both years

Humana shared this about the study methodology: “This study was performed on a cohort of Humana associates that were on a Humana employee medical health plan for a full 12 months in at least two consecutive plan years over the study period. The study was conducted by Humana actuaries for the following time period: Baseline Year (July 2010 – June 2011), Year 1 of the HumanaVitality program (July 2011 – June 2012) and Year 2 of the HumanaVitality program (July 2012 – June 2013). Only Humana employees were included in the study; individuals with high cost claims (>= $ 150,000 in the Baseline Year, Year 1 or Year 2) were removed from the sample. The final sample size was 13,046 members in the Year 1 analysis and 16,296 members in the Year 2 analysis.”