Alright all. Stay with me on this. It might seem odd to state that ferrets and doctors have something in common, but I believe they have one essential trait for success. Tenacity. And I think this character trait can teach us a lot.

Tenacity

Tenacity is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “the quality or fact of being very determined.” This word evokes many memories of times I have seen and heard about doctors and ferrets demonstrating their spirit, perseverance, resolution, and persistence on a given task ahead.

Ferrets

Daily, I see my business of ferrets exhibit this character trait. When I hear the word tenacity, it evokes memories of all the times I have seen my “cat snakes,” as I affectionately call them, go against the grain and with their spirited nature do something that I didn’t think they could. Tenacity is the only word that comes to mind when you see a ferret shove a pool noodle where there is no way it should fit. The ferret pushes, pulls, kicks, and huffs in order to get it into the hiding place they want it to go. Tenacity is when you see a ferret grab the shoe insole from your shoe to hide it after you just found it and put it back in your shoe. Tenacity is staring you down until you come to the cage to let them out even if it means staring at you for an hour. Tenacity is going poop in the same corner of the house knowing you will be put in the “sin bin” for not using the litter box. The tenacious spirit is seen as a ferret carefully grabs a balloon and pulls it under the couch without popping it, even if it means it will take an hour or more to do, or having to get a new balloon as the first one popped on that darn nail under the couch. Tenacity is taking every chance to persevere through adversity to get the result you want. This is a core character trait of a ferret.

Doctors

Similarly, the word tenacity evokes memories of doctors for me as I think about my friends and family who worked 30 plus hours in a shift during residency just so they could eventually have the title “Doctor” and now are doing research to solve medical mysteries and create life-changing procedures through trial and error. The word tenacity is exhibited every time you see a doctor working with limited supplies and figuring out solutions. Doctors work very hard doing their very best every day. Doctors, like ferrets, look adversity in the eyes, accept the challenge, and conquer adversity. Their tenacious spirit will save the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their tenacity will keep them working long hours and getting little sleep to make sure you and your loved ones are able to stay safe and get healthy if the worst is to happen. Their tenacity will find cures and not be overwhelmed with defeat when something doesn’t go to plan. Doctors play an essential role in our lives, now more than ever. Next time you wonder what character trait they possess that allows them to keep going – think tenacity.

Everyone Else

So, if you haven’t figured it out, I think tenacity is a skill that all of us need to hone. Where some people state that life is difficult and complex right now and are too immobilized to take action, those who have a tenacious spirit can find a way to persevere and make something happen. Figure out how to handle a difficult situation. Find a unique solution by any means necessary. Don’t give up. Push through those hard conversations and you never know what you will be able to accomplish. Find success by being tenacious in your attitude and actions. Be like a ferret who will stand down predators 10 times their size and win. Be like a doctor who will search for a solution that will work for your individual needs even when the solution seems non-existent. Be tenacious. Don’t give up. No matter how much you think a ferret can’t climb that object – they will find a way. No matter how many times a doctor has to go back to the drawing board to find a new way to tackle a problem, they eventually will find a solution. In the same method, no matter what you don’t think you can accomplish, try, try, and try again and I know you can if you are tenacious enough! Just look at what has been accomplished right now as everyone is being issued to stay at home. New solutions are being created and implemented daily so the human race can interact and be the social beings we are meant to be even if it means using a different method than before.

Thank you

Finally, in celebration of #Nationalferretday and #nationaldoctorsday, I want to say thank you to ferrets and doctors for teaching me the benefits of being tenacious! And a big shout out to both (as ferrets are being tested for possible vaccines and it is doctors who are developing medications for COVID-19) for helping look for solutions to this pandemic and comforting us in these uncertain times. Without both doctors and ferrets, I am not sure where I would be today, and I am very grateful for the things that my doctors have done and the lessons I have learned from my ferrets!

If you haven’t said it recently, please thank your doctors who are doing everything they can right now. And for putting your health above theirs. You may be resting comfortably at home, but I assure you they aren’t.

And if you are interested in ferrets, please check your local ferret rescue. Colorado’s no-kill ferret rescue is https://ferretdreams.org/ and they have monthly events that are amazing! Ferrets also sleep 16-20 hours a day so they are great pets if you can let them out the other 4-8 hours – just be prepared for their tenacity!

To Your Wellbeing,

Raena Chatwin

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On Data Privacy Day, I thought it might be helpful to write a little bit regarding the nature of privacy in the healthcare world. Many people know that there are laws like HIPAA that are in place to protect patients from their personal health information being breached. And while there are stories regularly about breaches, the amount of effort that goes into protecting health information is immense. Maybe by providing some insight into that world you, as a reader or one of our clients, might gain a greater sense of confidence or understand ways in which you can also protect yourself.

It’s more than just privacy

In order to manage the private information of all of our clients across the United States, MINES employs the use of an electronic health record system that stores and protects access to information, even from within our own company. We use layers of access and control as well as tracking our own users within the system. This also means that we have to employ some pretty strict control mechanisms within the system to ensure that security of data is maintained.

But, there are many times when we need to exchange information with other groups on your behalf. An example of this is providing an authorization to the provider that they are pre-approved to receive payment for services. To do so, many providers elect to receive this information via email, in which case the provider is sent a notification email where they are prompted to log into a secure website where that information can be accessed. We have structured our agreements with these providers to protect that information as best we can from the very beginning.

Part of the key to good data privacy policy that MINES employs is to only ask for information that is needed to provision services. For most of our clients, especially on the Employee Assistance side of our services, we ask for the last four digits of your social security number. This is used to help verify identity for later discussions with you. But the reason we don’t ask for your full social security number is because it creates a situation where we are storing information that isn’t critical to our needs to serve you.

Identity and security

As mentioned above, a critical element to protecting your privacy is tied to identity. Without going too deep into how this is handled across the healthcare industry, identifying an individual is usually done at MINES by their date of birth and last four digits of their social security number. From there, all internal work is handled by using a unique identifier, called a Patient ID. This allows us to be able to reference information from the central patient database without using your name, or other personally-identifiable information; decreasing the likelihood of erroneously sharing your data.

A note on confidentiality

Your information is never shared with your employer except in the case of Work Performance Referral in which case you will be asked to complete a letter explicitly allowing us to communicate with your employer regarding your progress. Your information is also confidential from disclosure to other employees at your company or anyone else for that matter without your permission. For example, even your spouse or family member cannot receive information about you from our staff without your permission. The exception to this is when information that we receive poses a threat to others, in which case we may be legally required to act.

Ways you can protect yourself

This isn’t meant to be alarmist, or to suggest that you shouldn’t provide as much information as you can with MINES. We implement a lot of control to make sure that the information that you provide to us is protected. However, below are a few things that you can do to help protect yourself.

Email

If you elect to receive email from us – for example, to communicate about an upcoming session, or request additional information – you should know that email alone is not secure. While most information that would be sent isn’t highly sensitive, it’s certainly something to be aware of. Regarding corporate email, specifically, most information that flows through corporate email servers is logged, stored, and likely accessible to IT professionals on some level at your organization.

Request a copy of the privacy notice

All providers should have this readily accessible to clients. By reading through the privacy notice, you can get a sense for how information about you can be used and what recourse you have in the case of a breach or needing a copy of your record on file with the provider. If you’d like to see our privacy policy, you can find that on our website, here.

Voicemail

As mentioned above, regarding the confidentiality of your information, when you call into MINES to receive access to services, the staff will ask if it is okay to leave voicemail. By providing a voice mailbox that is accessible only to you, we can make sure that your information is not being shared with other parties.

What’s on the horizon for us

In an effort to continue to meet the needs of privacy in an ever-more-connected world, MINES is engaged in a number of initiatives that will further protect and ease information exchange to simplify how we work with you. Soon, you will be able to create an online account with us where your history with MINES can be accessed. You and your provider will be able to use this platform to communicate with each other in a secured environment. You will be able to create your own account with us without calling in, so that if you want to request services but are concerned about someone overhearing the call, you can do so silently. And perhaps most exciting from my perspective, you will be able to create and access your account using a Facebook or Twitter account, allowing you to quickly authenticate your identity without pesky usernames and passwords!

We take security very seriously at MINES. We want you to have peace of mind when sharing information with us. If at any point in time you have questions, concerns, or suggestions regarding how we handle privacy and security, we welcome your insight. You can email or call us during regular business hours at info@minesandassociates.com or 800.873.7138.

To your health,

Ryan Lucas
Chief Information Officer
Security Officer
MINES & Associates

The post On #DataPrivacy Day appeared first on MINES and Associates.

Unsung (and unpaid) heroes

Given that a large percentage of caregivers are family members or friends of those that they care for, they are rarely paid or reimbursed for any of the time and resources that they spend caregiving. In fact, approximately 43.5 million caregivers have provided unpaid care to an adult or child in the last 12 months. [National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP. (2015). Caregiving in the U.S.] Not only do these folks go unpaid, they are often paying out of their own pocket for supplies, transportation, and lost wages due to missed work in the line of caregiver duty. Alzheimer’s and dementia are already ranked as some of the most expensive medical issues facing the US today, but with personal expenditures and lost wages for caregivers being hard to calculate exactly, this problem might be even worse than what the current stats say.

Who are they?

Despite their superhuman capacity for empathy, caregivers are normal people, and oftentimes do not have any formal caregiving training or background. They also come from just as diverse of backgrounds as that of the people that they care for. Typically, they are adults with the average age being 49.2 years old, with 48% of caregivers falling in between the ages of 18 and 49 years old. About a third of caregivers are older than 65. In terms of ethnicity, according to a 2015 survey, 62% of caregivers identify as White, while 17% identified as Hispanic, 13% as African-American, and 6% as Asian-American.  [National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP. (2015). Caregiving in the U.S.]

Women and Caregiving

A very important aspect of the Alzheimer’s/dementia crisis is that women are right at ground zero. Not only do women face a 60% greater chance of getting Alzheimer’s or dementia, but upwards of 75% of all caregivers are female, and may spend as much as 50% more time providing care than males. [Institute on Aging. (2016). Read How IOA Views Aging in America.]

While women account for the vast majority of caregivers, they also make up a large percentage of the individuals being cared for. In fact, 65% of care recipients are female, with an average age of 69.4. The younger the care recipient, the more likely the recipient is to be male. 45% of recipients aged 18-45 are male, while 33% of recipients aged 50 or higher are male. [National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP. (2015). Caregiving in the U.S.] Much of this is due to the fact that Alzheimer’s and many types of dementia tend show up in women a much higher rate than men. Researchers are trying to determine what the reason is behind this. It was once thought that it was because women tend to live longer than men, but as the average life expectancy becomes closer this is being challenged and other factors are being considered.

Who are they caring for?

While many caregivers do so professionally, many make the leap into the role of caregiver in order to care for family or close friends. This group actually makes up the vast majority of caregivers with 85% of all caregivers caring for a relative or other loved one. Of these caregivers 42% are caring for a parent, 15% are caring for a friend or other non-blood related loved one, 14% for a child, 7% for a parent-in-law, and 7% for a grandparent-in-law. [National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP. (2015). Caregiving in the U.S.]

What are they doing?

There is no set job description for caregiving. The day to day tasks vary from one individual to the next depending on the needs of those they care for. It is estimated that 96% of caregivers are charged with assisting or completely taking over normal everyday activities such as shopping, cooking, picking up prescriptions, and so forth which adds up fast, leaving little time for the caregivers’ own needs. [AARP and United Health Hospital Fund. (2012). Home Alone: Family Caregivers Providing Complex Chronic Care.]

According to a recent survey, on average, caregivers spend:

• 13 days each month on tasks such as shopping, food preparation, housekeeping, laundry, transportation, and giving medication;
• 6 days per month on feeding, dressing, grooming, walking, bathing, and assistance toileting;
• 13 hours per month researching care services or information on disease, coordinating physician visits or managing financial matters. [Gallup-Healthways. (2011). Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.]

To make matters worse, many of the tasks are complex and often medical in nature. A recent report that talked about caregivers who provide ongoing chronic care, 46% had to perform medical and nursing tasks on a regular basis, sometimes without the ability to obtain proper training to perform the needed tasks. [AARP and United Health Hospital Fund. (2012). Home Alone: Family Caregivers Providing Complex Chronic Care.]

It is important to mention that Alzheimer’s and other dementia related disease call for some of the more intensive and long term caregiving commitment. Measured by duration of care, Alzheimer’s and dementia caregivers provide care on average 1-4 years more than caregivers caring for someone with an illness other than Alzheimer’s disease. They are also more likely to be providing care for five years or longer. [Alzheimer’s Association. (2015). 2015 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures.]

How can we support them?

Caregivers report having difficulty finding time for one’s self (35%), managing emotional and physical stress (29%), and balancing work and family responsibilities (29%) (NAC, 2004). About 73% of surveyed caregivers said praying helps them cope with caregiving stress, 61% said that they talk with or seek advice from friends or relatives, and 44% read about caregiving in books or other materials (NAC, 2004). If you find yourself close to someone who is providing care for someone and you’d like to help out, keep in the mind the best way that you can help is to stay out of their way and instead go do daily tasks that they do not have time to do themselves such as shopping, picking up kids from school/activities, or offering company when they do get the rare moment to themselves. But remember if they just want to be alone make sure to give them the space they need to unwind.

Thank you!

So with all this in mind it’s easy to see that we should all be thankful to the caregivers in the world. Many people would be suffering even more without the time and personal sacrifices made by these special people every day. So this holiday season everyone at MINES says THANK YOU CAREGIVERS! Thank you for everything you do!

To Your wellbeing,

Nic Mckane

The MINES Team

Sources and Resources:

https://www.caregiver.org/caregiver-statistics-demographics. http://www.caregiving.org/caregiving2015/

http://www.cdc.gov/aging/caregiving/facts.htm, http://www.aarp.org/relationships/caregiving/info-11-2008/i13_caregiving.html

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But that’s not really the whole picture, now is it? The truth is that this is the model of a sick-care system. As I’ve mentioned in blog postings beforehand, in order to keep people as healthy as possible before they need to access the healthcare system, the system must account for one more “P” in this proverbial puzzle (or pie, if you’d like!); one’s Peers:

It’s the convergence of all four P’s (Provider, Payer, Patient, and that Patient’s Peers) that will allow for greater healthcare reach. When the Payer and the Provider are able to engage the Patient’s Peers, then true health generation is possible and the benefits of one’s social network can then be fully leveraged.

With that, I submit a new hashtag for the consideration of a community that continually strives to make the very complicated healthcare system a little simpler as we move towards greater total health and wellbeing of the individuals that have to access this system. #4PHealth represents the four core stakeholders in healthcare that ultimately are responsible for the health of the patient and responsible for keeping that patient out of the hospital, involved and engaged in their total health and wellbeing, and always striving to improve one’s total health picture. When the Patient, Provider, Payer, and Peers come together, total wellbeing is possible.

This doesn’t have to be limited to the TwitterSphere, though. Take a moment and think about the real-world applications of this for you in your life. What can you be doing to help those in your peer group become healthier? What opportunities are there for you to help generate greater health for yourself and for your friends, family, and coworkers? What can you ask of your peers to help you with to create better health for yourself? The 4P model may not be the easiest thing for us to accomplish in our current healthcare system given the disjointed nature of care models, but you still have the ability to start working on the fourth “P” today. What will your first step be?

To our health,

Ryan Lucas
Supervisor, Marketing
(illustrations assembled myself!)

The post Health inSite: #4PHealth appeared first on MINES and Associates.

So, as I began searching for reasons why the change occurred, I found a couple of interesting things.  The first was the American Psychiatric Association’s crosswalk of CPT codes which confirmed our thinking that the 90834 was intended to replace code 90806.  The second, and more interesting thing I found was a PowerPoint presentation developed by the AMA which explains the coding usage through examples (slides 29-34) and an explanation for the change (slides 18-20).  It’s stated that the reasons for the change are:

1. The site is no longer relevant to the CPT code to be used.
2. To match the time-bounding of the codes for other areas of the CPT dictionary.
3. Psychotherapy may include face-to-face time with family members as long as the patient is present for part of the session.

Slides 29 and 32 provide very instructive examples of a much larger issue that these new codes hope to achieve going forward – they are systems-oriented.  This is a big step!  Effectively, the AMA has recognized that the treatment plan as well as the acuity of a given Behavioral Health issue may either stem from, or may be treated in some way by, the system in which the patient operates.  Now it may only be the family unit so far, but I wonder if this may signal a slight shift in the fee for service (FFS) model that may help erode the need for classifying treatment for the purpose of reimbursement; it may even signal the eventual demise of a FFS model altogether.  In any case, it at least begins to push the reimbursement model toward considering systems-based psychotherapy which relies on support systems like the family to achieve treatment adherence.

Further, inclusion of the family unit in the psychotherapy model is a slight tip of the hat to shared health responsibility.  It doesn’t necessarily follow that we’re moving to a true “your friend’s friends make you fat” approach to health, but by bringing the family into the individual treatment setting means sharing in the health of the patient; some responsibility is shared with that family member to report on successes and failures, and help guide that patient down the path to greater health.  If that relationship were reciprocal, and as we know to some level that might be the case given link influence, then this step into the 90834 might start to have greater effects than was originally anticipated.

To our health,

Ryan Lucas
Supervisor, Marketing

The post Health inSite: Coding changes signal shift in healthcare thinking appeared first on MINES and Associates.

While I highlighted the opportunities with Alternate Reality Games and Transmedia Storytelling in my last post, I wanted to take a moment to share a recent production that I’ve been looking into that really highlights how this format works: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (LBD) is a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.  The characters in the story have their own online presence within various social media outlets and interact with one another through Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, ThisIsMyJam, Websites, and more (various examples shown).  The characters share their stories with one another through these dynamic media and oftentimes interact with the audience as well.

While this has engaged a pretty significant audience (fandom), what is really incredible is the way in which the audience has begun to participate with one another.  A recent update to the story included new information that Lydia Bennet (Lizzie’s youngest sister in the updated version) has been caught up in a sex tape scandal (remember, this is not meant to be perfectly along the storyline that Jane Austen wrote, but one that resonates with the audience of this retelling).  There was a huge outcry from the audience expressing dismay at this turn of events.  So much so, that that there was discussion the fandom should look for a hacker who would be willing to hack the website on which the video’s seller was collecting interested buyers with a countdown clock.  This created an immediate problem for the producers/writers of the story.  If the site indeed had been taken down, the team would have to develop a way to get around the change in the storyline created by the audience, and at great expense.  In this way, the audience collaborated to solve the problem of the character, rather than maintain their understanding that this was simply part of the story for consumption.

Let’s start with the Fourth Wall

In theater, the Fourth Wall is the theoretical veil between the audience and the stage.  Breaking the Fourth Wall happens when the players on the stage actively communicate directly to the audience.  There are countless examples in which the magic of the story playing on any stage (screen applies here too) is broken in this way, but the practice is increasing with evermore prevalent new media projects.  In my last post, I described Transmedia Storytelling and Alternate Reality Games as a way of telling a story through multiple media streams and its ability to engage an audience in new and immersive ways.  But breaking the Fourth Wall can be used to engage the audience in participating in the story through these methods to expand the value of the experience that the audience has.  For more on the Fourth Wall, check out Wikipedia for a quick overview, or TV Tropes for all kinds of cool information about the idea and the way that the  this device may be used.

Now, to the Fifth Wall

There is another proposed wall which has been less well explored, and often debated as to its name: The Fifth Wall.  The operational definition that I like is the veil that separates members of the audience from one another.  For a long time, the audience has been the passive observer of entertainment with notable exceptions of breaking the Fourth Wall.  But, rarely does a media experience really ask for members of the audience to work with one another.  This concept of the Fifth Wall could have significant implications in the sharing of narrative within an Alternate Reality Game with a true Transmedia Story backbone.  Consider the opportunities of having participants in the audience that can help guide the story cooperatively; sharing goals, pushing one another toward success, battling challenges together.  If your friends’ friends impact your health in positive and negative ways (see previous posts about link influence here), what about engaging a first node relationship more directly to change the perception of the second or third node to ripple back through the network to you.  In this way, the network then begins to course with change and as you make changes that influence others, their responsive changes come back to you.  In this way, helping others get healthier helps you get healthier.

The Walls and their implications within LBD

The surprising situation that happened within the LBD is that while the narrative has been so clearly billed as a story, with many instances of the Fourth Wall being broken (the producers actually have entire blog postings dedicated to talking about the production process as it is occurring), it turns out that the Fifth Wall nearly took down the production.  The audience reverted to a sense of belief as they interacted with one another.  The characters, then, are part of the audience – and the audience part of the characters.  This creates a shared experience where the audience felt that they were responsible for helping solve the problem for the character.

Summary

The investment of the audience in their shared experience (this includes characters, as mentioned above) has huge implications for health programming.  Imagine a story with so much motivation and movement as LBD written to achieve Salutogenesis by creating a shared landscape around health behaviors.  If we know that education, knowledge, and external incentives are not motivations for behavior change, is this the next landscape to try?  We think it is.

To our health,

Ryan Lucas
Marketing

The post Health inSite: Breaking the Fifth Wall appeared first on MINES and Associates.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the concept of Salutogenesis and what it might mean at your workplace.

The River

Antonovsky’s explanation of Salutogenesis was well depicted by a river.  His concern with the current model of health (Pathogenesis) is that it’s generally believed that we are healthy from the beginning but that because of environmental / circumstantial events, we become sick.  Antonovsky expressed this as a river, where all healthy people stand on the bank, safe from the raging river’s flow.  Once one stepped into the river – got sick – then something needed to be done.  Salutogenesis, however, sees all people already in the river; but at different distances from the mouth.  General resistance resources (GRRs), a term Antonovsky used as well, are the supportive mechanisms that make it possible to engage in their health generating activities.  These allow for someone to swim against the current or maintain a position against the current.  The result of thinking this way is the freedom to abandon the bias that one has failed at being healthy, but rather that they are always working at generating more health.

Sense of Coherence

Antonovsky’s continued his explanation of Salutogenesis as hinged on a Sense of Coherence.  Sense of Coherence is defined by three major parts:

1. Comprehensibility (I get this).  The ability to understand one’s circumstances.  If you look back at some of my previous postings on Cognitive Bias, we are unable to fully comprehend our experience because, as Kahneman has pointed out in Thinking Fast and Slow, we are subject to a number of biases including base rate neglect (not having the ability to assess, objectively, where things are from the start before making an opinion of what is possible).
2. Manageability (I got this).  The ability to assess resources for dealing with one’s circumstances.  “The right tool for the right job” comes to mind here.  To adequately meet the needs of Manageability, one must not only have the resources available, but the knowledge that they can be used.
3. Meaningfulness (I’m good to go).  The ability to comprehend the anticipated results as helpful.  We oftentimes recognize that there is a change to be had, but taking that step can be difficult without a fire under your bottom.

Taken together, these three points sit at the nexus of the ability for any given person to be able to effectively engage with their health.  When all three are maximized for performance, individuals can effectively mitigate the potential of their circumstances.  Education obviously plays a big role in the process of becoming healthier, but education alone cannot make people healthier.

Your role as a benefits provider

As someone that is providing benefits to a group of people, you have a key role in the ability to help those covered to become healthier; to actually create health.  It’s easy to provide a benefit that is available when it’s needed and provided by an external vendor, but that doesn’t have to be the end.  Visionary organizations are engaging their population in small, but every day, ways.

What can be done

Engagement is key.  First off, you have to take on an organizational wellbeing plan in earnest.  If you’re willing to put in the effort, your population will be more likely to stay engaged.  If you’re not behind it 100%, they probably won’t be either.  But what can be done to engage in health more actively in the worksite?

Let’s look at some of the GRRs that Antonovsky identified and where they may occur in the workplace.

Money: Money enables us to purchase services and products that can enable health generating activities.  It can also be used to incentivize or disincentivize activities – the so-called carrot and/or stick approach.  But, money also has some significant impact on engagement.  When individuals make a purchase, they are actively exchanging the value of their dollar for the value of what is being purchased.  If you’re familiar with the concept of Behavioral Economics, this might include devaluation of a certain program because it is provided for free.  Instead, incentivizing purchase of products or services that help in the generation of health means personal investment in its use.

Knowledge: You know that conference or meeting room that is usually set aside for meetings with clients, or teams within your organization?  It may also be a great location to have a training or two related to health generating activities.  Including helpful information in your break room, like healthful recipes, may be a continual reminder of what your population is putting into their bodies.

Commitment: Commitment may be especially easy to generate in the workplace because you’re already showing an investment in those you provide benefits for.  Showing your commitment to the program can help create mutual investment, as well!

Social Support: Encourage people to support each other in your health generating activities by rewarding employees who provide assistance or encouragement in the health of other employees.  This creates a social structure for engaging in health, and we know that community is the key to health.

Taken together, this is a powerful recipe for getting the kind of motivation needed to stay actively engaged in your population’s health.  And, the long-term benefit of a healthier and happier workforce is what drives productivity and profitability.

To our health,

Ryan Lucas
Marketing

The post Health inSite: A Salutogenic Workplace appeared first on MINES and Associates.

This progression has expanded over time with new levels being added as the market strives for differentiation.  Many of the examples brought up are clear and concise, such as Starbucks as a purveyor of coffee (a commodity) that really charges the market at the level of a Service.  Pine and Gilmore stop at the level of Service in their description of Starbucks, but I would readily argue that they reach towards the level of experience.  Starbucks actually refers to this in their training materials as creating “The Third Place;” it’s not your work, or your home, it’s that other place where you can unwind a little bit.  Even though the customer isn’t actually brewing their own coffee, as is a hallmark of many experiences, they are engaging with the sounds and smells of the coffee shop in a very intentional way.

The book spends a great deal of time discussing offerings that are on the level of Experience but certainly takes a moment to tip its hat toward Transformations, a burgeoning new market offering.  Transformations are marked by the engagement of the customer in a way that enables that person to learn or grow, exactly to Transform, themselves in a way that is truly valuable to the customer.  It includes giving the customer the skills and motivation to make changes that will both provide some immediate value but also cascade down into further value down the road.

In healthcare, this understanding of the market is significant and valuable.  As we, as an industry, discuss Accountable Care Organizations, capitated care models, and participatory medicine, it’s important for us to keep in mind where value is derived in the typical marketplace.  Healthcare, while arguably different in many ways from other industries by its virtual necessity in every citizen’s timeline, still must compete under the same rules as many other industries.  Many times, in healthcare, we present ourselves on the level of Service – that is that we are doing something for someone, for a fee.  As we look at these new systems, it is time for us to consider what the future of healthcare delivery will require under a population health model of delivery.

Eschewing the fee-for-service model opens up the possibility for the healthcare industry to reconsider offering the long-term value of teaching individuals how to keep themselves healthy, at least in terms of the 80% of healthcare costs that are mediated by behavior.   This decreases the time and services that must be provided creating new forms of cost savings.  As we move further up the economic offering ladder, it will become more necessary to move our industry into the Transformation realm.  In fact, there is no other industry more suited to it.

To our health,

Ryan
Marketing

The post Health inSite: Transformations as the Future of Healthcare appeared first on MINES and Associates.

When it comes to your health, it’s important to realize that the decisions you make do not exist in a vacuum.  In fact, it may be even more the decision of your peer group than yourself as to what you eat, how you exercise, and what other habits and behaviors you engage in.  Recent studies have shown that your social network (and we’re not talking about facebook here, although that may be one depiction and/or part of your social network) has a greater impact on our overall health and well-being than we knew (or, in some cases, would like to think!).

An excellent, recent article posted by Mark Hyman, MD on the Huffington Post explains: “Much can be done with a little help from your friends.”  Creating a community around health topics, especially related to health behavior changes, can be critical to instituting new or better habits that have an impact on your total well-being.

At MINES, there are a couple of us that get together for lunch every day.  In the course of the meal, we may talk about the Broncos, the latest political debate, technology, and so on.  But one thing that we do every meal is discuss what we are eating.  We come together and discuss new recipes we’ve discovered and why we’ve chosen to eat as we have.  I recently (and at the time of this posting, currently) tried to eat only whole foods for a month.  This meant no salt, no sugar, no cheese, sweetening my coffee with honey, and very little pasta / bread.  It has been difficult to fully 180 turn around on a diet that had previously heavily relied on enriched cereal grains and pre-processed foods.  But, the reason I was able to make the shift, I believe, was that I was positively influenced by this group that was interested in, shared similar views on, and regularly engaged (daily) in the topic.  In behavioral health, we would say this created a support resource for treatment adherence.

Healthy behavior is not dependent on what payment models, medical technology, or other innovations come about in the healthcare debate.  We know that your friend’s friend has a great impact on what you do – and vice versa.

Today, you could:

• Discover new friends
• Decide to impact your friends
• Ask for support from your friends
• Be influenced by your friends

Today, make a decision about one habit that you want to change and find someone who wants to make that change with you (or even better, a group of people) and you’ll find yourself much more likely to achieve it.  If you’re not sure how to decide what changes to make or need some ideas on creating your own wellness plan, one of our Affiliates, Cecelia Keelin, recently hosted a ChooseWell webinar for MINES that might help.

To our health,

Ryan
Marketing

The post Health inSite: Community is the Key to Health appeared first on MINES and Associates.

Today’s inSite highlights a very well-written article (Do We Need Doctors or Algorithms?) that lays out some of the ways in which Healthcare may be changing, be it through our intentional effort or our naturally-occurring social meanderings (I use the Wikipedia article intentionally!).

Consider some of these possibilities with a view of their overall impact on our Healthcare landscape.  While some of these may, at first, seem far-flung, they are quite insightful and not as far off as one might think when you consider what we are already capable of accomplishing with mobile technology as well as data integration and management systems.  While it may be a natural reaction to respond with some concern – how fantastic would it be to have systems that imbue all providers with the confidence and accuracy that a system like the one mentioned in this article could provide.  Then our providers could be really focused on treating the relapse issues that can often creep their way into the patient’s treatment compliance.  It’s very possible that our docs’ roles may be shifting once again from diagnosis to advising to (now) nudging as patients become more empowered and informed to make their own decisions.

Ryan Lucas
Marketing

The post Health inSite: Do We Need Doctors or Algorithms? appeared first on MINES and Associates.