A new report released today by UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), titled
“100 Percent of Our Future: Improving the Health of America’s Children,”
points to several practical steps to address the unmet health needs of
children.
These practical steps include:
-
expanding proven group prenatal support for pregnant women to cut
preterm births and reduce health disparities;
-
scaling-up new lifestyle/behavioral interventions that successfully
fight childhood obesity;
-
broadening care coordination in Medicaid to improve underserved
children’s health outcomes; and
-
supporting specialized networks to advance research and treatment of
complex conditions affecting children.
“The mystery here is why the U.S. hasn’t yet implemented proven and
practical steps to improve children’s lives while saving families and
the nation billions of dollars,” said Simon Stevens, chairman of the
UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform & Modernization, executive vice
president of UnitedHealth Group, and one of the paper’s authors.
“Children may be a quarter of the American population – but they’re
inarguably 100 percent of our future, so the time to act is now.”
The new findings come at a time when chronic health conditions are on
the rise among children. Childhood asthma grew by more than 10 percent
in the last decade and affects almost one in ten children today. One in
three children in the United States are obese or overweight, driving
unprecedented increases in children’s type 2 diabetes, hypertension and
cardiovascular disease. Partly as a result, health care costs for
children are now increasing far faster than for adults.
Meaningful interventions to reduce childhood obesity could save
billions of dollars
The report highlights opportunities for
reducing childhood obesity in the United States, including broader
adoption of lifestyle change/behavioral intervention models. These
include UnitedHealth Group’s JOIN for ME program, which engages the
whole family to help children struggling with weight issues. According
to the report’s analysis, if a program similar to JOIN for ME was to be
scaled nationally, a reduction in the rate of childhood obesity and
overweight children by 5 percentage points over 5 years could reduce the
number of obese and overweight children by about 10 million and the
number of obese adults by 2 million by 2023. This might yield $25
billion in lower health care spending over the next 10 years, and
savings would increase beyond that. The report also points to the
potential of “exergaming” – a new trend in which the gaming technology
monitors physical activity levels – as a new opportunity to engage with
kids.
“Weight issues can lead to serious health consequences that are even
more problematic as kids transition to adulthood,” said Deneen Vojta,
M.D., a pediatrician and clinician executive in the UnitedHealth Center
for Health Reform & Modernization. “While there are some early – if
equivocal – signs that obesity may be slowing down in some age groups, a
substantial challenge remains. We need to give children and their
parents access to tools that work. This can have a dramatic effect on
their health and well-being.”
UnitedHealth Group’s new analysis suggests that if childhood obesity
rates had remained at 1990 levels, there might be about 9 million fewer
obese or overweight children today and about 3 million fewer obese
adults, translating into an approximately $54 billion lower health care
cost outlook over the next decade.
New “group” model for prenatal care shows better engagement, outcomes
The
report also shows that broad application of group prenatal care models
can boost healthy pregnancies and reduce the incidence of preterm
births. UnitedHealth Group’s analysis shows that if half of the pregnant
women in state Medicaid programs received care through a group prenatal
care setting over a 5-year period, approximately $12 billion in health
care costs savings could be realized over the next decade. An additional
$4 billion savings might be achieved by offering group prenatal care
programs to a targeted group of women with employer-based coverage as
well.
Opportunities to leverage care coordination for children's services
The
report also identifies some “easy wins” to help improve children’s
health through better care coordination, which can result in better
health outcomes and cost savings. This is particularly the case in the
Medicaid program, where less than half of children’s spending, including
spending for children with disabilities, is paid through capitated
Medicaid managed care organizations that support care coordination.
Additional proposals include support for child health research networks
to more rapidly advance knowledge, research and treatments for complex
conditions (e.g., cystic fibrosis, Crohn’s disease and oncology)
affecting children.
The report is informed by UnitedHealth Group’s experience and data as
America’s largest private payer for children’s health care, as America’s
largest Medicaid health plan serving low-income families and their
children, and as a longstanding innovator in new models for children’s
care and prevention.
To read the full report, go to: http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/reform
About the UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform & Modernization
The
Center is a long-term commitment by UnitedHealth Group to advance
sophisticated and practical approaches to health care modernization and
reform. Its multi-disciplinary team of clinicians, economists,
executives and policy analysts supports UnitedHealth Group’s strategy
development and innovation agenda. The Center’s public work program
involves assessing and developing policies and solutions for the health
care challenges facing the nation, including: innovative approaches to
expanding health care coverage; practical cost-containment strategies to
slow the growth of U.S. health care costs; and options for modernizing
Medicare and Medicaid. Its published work is available at www.unitedhealthgroup.com/reform
About UnitedHealth Group
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) is a
diversified health and well-being company dedicated to helping people
live healthier lives and making health care work better. With
headquarters in Minnetonka, Minn., UnitedHealth Group offers a broad
spectrum of products and services through two business platforms:
UnitedHealthcare, which provides health care coverage and benefits
services; and Optum, which provides information and technology-enabled
health services. Through its businesses, UnitedHealth Group serves more
than 85 million people worldwide. For more information, visit
UnitedHealth Group at www.unitedhealthgroup.com.
Click
here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for UnitedHealth Group.
Copyright Business Wire 2013