What is the problem?
Although the U.S. spends more on health care than any other industrialized nation, its citizens are not the healthiest. The World Health Organization’s comparative analysis of the health of the world’s nations ranks the U.S. in the bottom quartile in all of the internationally accepted and recognized measures of population health. Additionally, health care spending is becoming an increasing burden on the U.S. economy even though it is estimated that almost 80% of all health care costs are the product of preventable illnesses. Total health care spending jumped 230% from $696 billion in 1990 to nearly
$2.3 trillion in 2006. It is estimated that this number could reach $4.0 trillion or 20% of U.S. GDP by 2020. Similarly, our neighbors in Canada are suffering from an almost identical burden as a percentage of total health care expenditures.
However, the problem of escalating health care costs is largely preventable. Evidence based medicine has demonstrated that much of the chronic disease onset is preventable. Some 75%-80% of the monies spent on health care are allocated to treating – not curing or preventing – diseases that are largely preventable such as cardiovascular disease, cancers, and diabetes. Furthermore, The Centers for Disease Control have identified that eliminating poor nutrition, inactivity, and smoking can reduce the onset of CVD, CAD, stroke, and Type-2 diabetes by 80% and cancers by 40%. Such insight into to the prevention of common diseases has led to increased supply of health and wellness programs provided by employers or through insurance plans and increasing demand from plan participants.
A Business Model to Solve the Problem
There are approximately 200 million U.S. citizens covered by employer sponsored health insurance. Preventive Medicine intends to take advantage of the growing use of the Internet as an effective way to reach millions of families who make up the U.S. workforce and who are covered by the health insurance sector with special focus on the non-profit providers. Preventive Medicine plans to focus initially on the almost 200 million Americans that make up the private sector “covered” population. In addition, the entire population of Canada - comprised of approximately 33 million people - is covered by a national program which is administered and controlled at the provincial level of government. Of this total, nearly 160 million lives are
covered by the Top 50 carriers while 39 million of the 200 million are covered by 17 non-profit BlueCross BlueShield insurance carriers in their local markets.
Preventive Medicine will reach this market through employee benefit programs and the carriers and health care services sector companies that administer these programs in the U.S. and through relationships with the appropriate health care systems and provincial ministries in Canada. Preventive Medicine intends to utilize a combination of medical, lifestyle, behavioral, and information technology capabilities to deliver its services to the insured population through “private labeling” and wholesale distribution.
Unlike other health and wellness programs, Preventive Medicine focuses on true primary prevention of chronic disease and the risk factors that lead to these diseases. The unique approach of the Preventive Medicine – Allen Behavioral Change Model, supported by visual and graphic information technology and methodologies, provide a distinct competitive advantage. Preventive Medicine believes that the implementation of its technology will help correct unsustainable trends in health care spending, contribute to a healthier population, and improve on any existing solution in the marketplace today.
