She likes those preventive check ups.
I bet lots of you who read the above title think my comments will be about adults who smoke, or adults who are obese because of over-eating and poor diet. Well, to me these adults are easy targets. They are the low hanging fruit because they are easy to spot, and easy to point the finger at.
But things like overeating or smoking are not the adult behavior I am concerned with. The patterns of behavior I am describing are responsible for about $20.8 billion in unnecessary excess medical spending every year. The spending is unnecessary because the excess medical costs are less related to medical illness and more related to a certain type of person who trusts doctors, engages in proactive health behavior, and owns an extreme readiness to seek medical care.
How the Most Expensive Patients Behave and Think
The description of health behaviors and predispositions that follow come from research I have conducted through the PATH Institute Corporation. The 20 health related statements listed below come from the PATH Type Questionnaire and are used to describe the behavior and predispositions of the most expensive patients. The tailored statements come from interviews with just under 14,000 adults between the ages of 18 and 65 who have health insurance. The adults with this pattern of health behaviors and predispositions generally account for about 15% to 17% of health plan members, but only make up about 10% of adults nationwide.
Here is how they describe themselves:
- I look for health information
- I do not choose doctors to try and save money
- I always plan ahead for my health
- I am not concerned with trying to save health care dollars
- I don’t take part in vigorous exercise or sports
- I make health care decisions for the family
- I don’t like or dislike making family health decisions
- I go to the doctor, and I don’t worry about the costs
- My family members take care of their own health
- I would not compare hospitals if I needed to go to one
- I look for information about nutrition and dieting
- I go to the doctor at the first sign of any problem
- Most doctors are competent
- When I get sick, I mostly decide treatments myself
- I would like my family to be healthier
- I feel that I try to keep my body in top physical shape
- Most doctors are thoroughly informed about the drugs they prescribe
- I prefer to not use the doctors who are the least expensive
- When I get sick I go beyond the treatments my parents used to use
- I’m pretty much make my own health care decisions
Who They Are
Here are a few characteristics of these adults who describe themselves this way based on data from over 250,000 adults:
- About 70% are female
- Average age about 52, but there are plenty above and below this age
- Typically very well-educated
- High income or affluent
- No children or older teens
- More often married or divorced
- Self rated health status moderate to somewhat low
- Activity level moderate to somewhat low
- Many self-reported health risk factors
- Highest number of diagnosed diseases
- Highest rate of prescription drug use
- Above average rates of medication compliance and adherence
My Purpose
I am describing this group of adults because they are responsible for a large share of unnecessary medical spending which needs to be recognized and reduced with the same kind of focus given to smoking behavior and the growing national focus on obesity.
The adults with the characteristics, behaviors, and predispositions I have described drive up the treatment costs for every disease and illness unnecessarily.
Based on what I have seen in many years of data, the failure to recognize the impact of these adults defined by psycho-behavioral predispositions will hamper any and all efforts at reducing healthcare costs throughout the United States, and are likely to contribute to a bankrupt outcome for any health care delivery system adopted.
. ITA has a real and powerful role in determining who exercises and who does not, who engages in wellness practices and who does not, and which individuals suffer the most from ill health. Implicit Type Architecture effects on bodily form and function are clearly visible when individuals are sorted by their diagnosed ITA. ITA identifies differences in robust health and frailty, healthy and unhealthy weight, and levels of emotional and cognitive balance. The reason for these effects is simple to understand once the reality of ITA is understood and seen.
I read this morning in an online newspaper that only 25% of US workers with a high school education have access to wellness programs through their job. That is really about right because only about 30% of high school educated employees really need help with wellness.
It is very unfortunate that there are people who won’t or can’t take care of themselves. I don’t mind the people who can’t.
