Tag Archives: health insurance

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Pregnancy-Tracking Apps Pose Challenges for Employees

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As more companies embrace health-tracking apps to encourage healthier habits and drive down healthcare costs, some employees are becoming uncomfortable with the amount and types of data the apps are sharing with their employers, insurance companies and others.

This is especially true for apps that track fertility and pregnancy. As the Washington Post recently reported, these apps collect huge amounts of personal health information, and are not always transparent about who has access to it. The digital rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation even published a paper in 2017 titled The Pregnancy Panopticon detailing the security and privacy issues with pregnancy-tracking apps. Employers can also pay extra for some pregnancy-tracking apps to provide them with employees’ health information directly, ostensibly to reduce health care spending and improve the company’s ability to plan for the future.

Given the documented workplace discrimination against women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant, users may worry that the information they provide the apps could impact employment options or treatment by colleagues and managers. Pregnancy-tracking apps also collect infinitely more personal data than traditional health-tracking apps and devices like step-counters or heart rate monitors. This can include everything from what medications users are taking and when they are having sex or their periods, to the color of their cervical fluid and their doctors’ names and locations.

Citing discomfort with providing this level of information, the Washington Post reported some women have even taken steps to obscure their personal details when using the apps, for fear that their employers, insurance companies, health care providers or third parties may have access to their data and could use it against them in some way. They use fake names or fake email addresses and only give the apps select details or provide inaccurate information. Fearing the invasion of their newborn children’s privacy, some have even chosen not to report their children’s births on the apps, despite this impacting their ability to track their own health and that of their newborn on the app.

Like many other apps or online platforms, it may be difficult to parse out exactly what health-tracking apps are doing with users’ information and what you are agreeing to when you sign up. When employers get involved, these issues get even more difficult. By providing incentives—either in the form of tangible rewards like cash or gift cards, or intangible benefits such as looking like a team player—companies may actually discourage their employees from looking closely at the apps’ terms of use or other key details they need to fully inform the choice to participate or not.

While getting more information about employees’ health may offer ways to improve a workforce’s health and reduce treatment costs, companies encouraging their employees to use these apps are also opening themselves up to risks. As noted above, apps are not always transparent as to what information they are storing and how. Depending on the apps’ security practices, employees’ data may be susceptible to hacking or other misuse by third-party or malicious actors. For example, in January 2018, fitness-tracking app Strava released a map of users’ activity that inadvertently exposed sensitive information about military personnel’s locations, including in war zones. Given the kinds of personal details that some apps collect, health app data could also put users at risk of identity theft or other types of fraud.

Tracking, storing, and using workers’ personal health information also exposes employers and insurance companies to a number of risks and liabilities, including third-party data storage vulnerabilities and data breaches. This is especially important in places governed by stringent online data protection regulations like the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In addition to the risks of reputation damage, companies that are breached or otherwise expose employees’ personal information could face significant regulatory fines.

People using health-tracking apps, especially fertility-related apps, should weigh the costs and benefits of disclosing personal information against how apps and others are using this information. Companies who encourage their employees to use these apps and collect their personal health details should also be as transparent as possible about how they are using it, and implement measures to protect workers’ personal data to the fullest extent possible and ensure that managers are not using this data to discriminate against workers.

CVS Announces Plan to Stop Selling Cigarettes

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CVS to Stop Selling Cigarettes

On Feb. 5, CVS Caremark Chief Executive Larry Merlo said, “We’ve come to the decision that cigarettes have no place in an environment where healthcare is being delivered.” The company, he announced, will remove all cigarette and tobacco products from its 7,600 pharmacies nationwide by Oct. 1. The move is expensive, with up to billion in projected lost sales.

But CVS is betting on the long-run gains from doubling down on brand reputation and helping customers to live—and shop—far longer.

President Barack Obama personally took the time out to praise CVS, saying in a statement that the move will help wider efforts to “reduce tobacco-related deaths, cancer, and heart disease, as well as bring down healthcare costs.”

“CVS is now one of a small group of companies that have realized that their reputation is the most valuable asset they have and that building a stronger reputation by avoiding risks to that reputation can create a significant competitive advantage,” said Paul Argenti, professor of corporate communications at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, in a column for the Harvard Business Review. “From the White House to the American Lung Association, CVS has received kudos for what seems to be a focus on shared value with society rather than the reckless pursuit of revenue at any cost.”

While CVS stock initially dropped the day of the announcement, shares have since risen 2.3%, success further bolstered when the country’s largest drugstore chain reported 2013 revenue of $126.8 billion—up 3% on healthy growth for drug plans and in-store pharmacies offset by weak growth in front-of-store sales.

“Its profit comes increasingly from health plans, which aren’t keen on carcinogens,” Jack Hough wrote in Barron’s. “Consider: CVS’ tobacco decision is expected to subtract six to nine cents from its yearly earnings per share. But a prescription deal with the Federal Employee Health Program, which expires at year’s end, is worth 16 cents to 21 cents a share, estimates investment bank Mizuho Securities. For CVS, a good chance at renewal just became better, and there’s plenty more business to be won.”

In Forbes’ CMO Shift blog, brand consultant Scott Davis wrote:

The $2 billion decision to boldly dump tobacco sends CVS’ boldest signal of commitment to the brand and to where it sees its future growth; it’s an unprecedented move and one that is wickedly smart. CVS is putting its money where its brand is, betting that this first mover advantage will pay off. I say “first mover” because no one truly owns health and wellness. Sixteen thousand health and wellness apps were downloaded last year.

Over $1.4 billion was spent by people trying to learn more about the topic. The overall category is heading to $1 trillion in the next 3-5 years and the timing is right for someone to step in and lead the dialog and become the Amazon of health and wellness. Why not CVS?

Indeed, CVS has spent considerable time and money extending the legacy of pharmacists as community health experts by adding over 800 MinuteClinic walk-in facilities. In doing so, the company has become the largest U.S. pharmacy healthcare provider.

The chain’s competitors are also branching into anti-smoking efforts as they expand their role in the wellness market. Walgreens recently unveiled a partnership with GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare to launch a free, Internet-based smoking cessation program called Sponsorship to Quit.

Overall U.S. cigarette sales fell 31.3% from 2003 to 2013, according to Euromonitor International. Many health officials hope that the move will help continue to decrease the number of smokers and smoking-related deaths in the U.S. “I think CVS recognized that it was just paradoxical to be both a seller of deadly products and a healthcare provider,” U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden told Reuters.

Working to build and maintain a strong reputation also boosts the bottom line. Studies from Argenti and a range of other researchers suggest that companies with a strong reputation enjoy price advantages, being able to negotiate lower prices with suppliers and higher charges to customers. They can also recruit better employees, have more stable revenues and, “when something bad happens, they are given the benefit of the doubt by their stakeholders.” Further, “highly reputed companies are more stable, which means they have higher market valuation and stock price over the long term and greater loyalty of their investors, which leads to less volatility,” according to Argenti.

Convenience stores account for 75% of cigarette sales nationwide, so the tobacco industry has yet to express concern about prospective losses from drugstore sales. But Dr. Richard Wender of the American Cancer Society said CVS’s move would have an effect. “Every time we make it more difficult to purchase a pack of cigarettes, someone quits,” he told Reuters. So far, CVS is betting on that for patients’ health, and its own.

The 10 Most and Least Expensive Health Insurance Markets in the U.S.

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Health Insurance

Under Obamacare’s new insurance marketplaces, people in Minnesota, northwestern Pennsylvania, and Tucson, Ariz., are getting the best bargains for health care coverage. Premiums in these areas are half the price of policies in the most expensive regions, based on the lowest cost of a “silver” plan – the mid-range plan most consumers are choosing.

“The cheapest cost regions tend to have robust competition between hospitals and doctors, allowing insurers to wrangle lower rates,” according to a report from Kaiser Health News and NPR. “Many doctors work on salary in these regions rather than being paid by procedure, weakening the financial incentive to perform more procedures.”

The 10 regions with the lowest premiums are:

$154: Minneapolis-St. Paul – Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Sherburne and Washington counties.

$164: Pittsburgh and Northwestern Pennsylvania – Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Erie, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, McKean, Mercer, Warren, Washington and Westmoreland counties.

$166: Middle Minnesota – Benton, Stearns and Wright counties.

$167: Tucson, Ariz. – Pima County.

$171: Northwestern Minnesota – Clearwater, Kittson, Mahnomen, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk and Red Lake counties.

$173: Salt Lake City – Davis and Salt Lake counties.

$176: Hawaii

$180: Knoxville, Tenn. – Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Claiborne, Cocke, Grainger, Hamblen, Jefferson, Knox, Loudon, Monroe, Morgan, Roane, Scott, Sevier & Union.

$180: Western and North Central Minnesota – Aitkin, Becker, Beltrami, Big Stone, Cass, Chippewa, Clay, Crow Wing, Douglas, Grant, Hubbard, Isanti, Kanabec, Kandiyohi, Lac qui Parle, Lyon, McLeod, Meeker, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Otter Tail, Pine, Pope, Renville, Roseau, Sibley, Stevens, Swift, Todd, Traverse, Wadena Wilkin and Yellow Medicine counties. In Chisago County, the lowest premium is $162.

$181: Chattanooga, Tenn. – Bledsoe, Bradley, Franklin, Grundy, Hamilton, Marion, McMinn, Meigs, Polk, Rhea and Sequatchie counties.

 

The 10 most expensive regions are:

$483: Colorado Mountain Resort Region – Eagle, Garfield and Pitkin counties, home of Aspen and Vail ski resorts. Summit County premiums are $462.

$461: Southwest Georgia – Baker, Calhoun, Clay, Crisp, Dougherty, Lee, Mitchell, Randolph, Schley, Sumter, Terrell and Worth counties.

$456: Rural Nevada – Esmeralda, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Lincoln, Elko, Mineral, Pershing, White Pine and Churchill counties.

$445: Far western Wisconsin – Pierce, Polk and St. Croix counties, across the border from St. Paul, Minn.

$423: Southern Georgia – A swath of counties adjacent to the even more expensive region. Ben Hill, Berrien, Brooks, Clinch, Colquitt, Cook, Decatur, Early, Echols, Grady, Irwin, Lanier, Lowndes, Miller, Seminole, Thomas, Tift and Turner counties.

$405: Most of Wyoming – All counties except Natrona and Laramie.

$399: Southeast Mississippi – George, Harrison, Jackson & Stone counties. In Hancock County, the lowest price plan is $447.

$395: Vermont*

$383: Fairfield, Conn. – The southwestern-most county, which includes many affluent commuter towns for New York City.

$381: Alaska.

*Unlike other states, Vermont does not let insurers charge more to older people and less to younger ones. Its ranking therefore will differ depending on the ages of the consumers.