U.S. Delegate Christensen and U.S. Rep. Burgess Cite New Research from the Center for Health Research at Healthways in Urging Congressional Support for Preventative Health Savings Act

NASHVILLE, Tenn. & WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--U.S. Representative Michael Burgess (R-Texas) and U.S. Delegate Donna Christensen (D-U.S. Virgin islands) alerted Congressional colleagues today to a powerful new tool for quantifying and scoring the value of preventative health and health risk reduction programs.

“It's time for the CBO to capture and consider what doctors have long known”

Burgess and Christensen are co-sponsoring “The Preventative Health Savings Act” (H.R. 3148), which would direct the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to investigate the potential savings to Medicare, which could be gained through an enhanced government and healthcare industry focus on disease prevention. (See accompanying document.)

In support of the legislation, the two issued a letter to all colleagues today, drawing attention to a landmark study published recently by the Center for Health Research at Healthways, Inc. - Potential Medicare Savings Through Prevention & Health Risk Reduction - which predicts that government investment in programs and solutions aimed at improving the health and well-being of Americans, both before and after entry into Medicare, could yield up to $1.4 trillion in savings over 10 years. Those savings would still accrue even taking into account increases in longevity associated with preventing or slowing health risk progression.

The Preventative Health Savings Act would require the CBO to take the comprehensive actuarial model used in the study, a model developed and tested by Ingenix Consulting, to conduct an initial analysis to confirm Healthways’ predictions. The CBO would then be required to include an estimate and description of those future-year savings in its budget projections.

"It's time for the CBO to capture and consider what doctors have long known," said Congressman Burgess, a physician himself. "Long-term risk prevention and wellness programs lead to healthier Americans, and that's why we've introduced the Preventative Health Savings Act. Utilizing the Healthways-Ingenix model, we can show Americans, in hard dollars and sense, that these initiatives save money. Unfortunately, the current CBO scoring process does not give Congress a complete picture on preventive health, as its long-term benefits are not fully reflected, if at all, in current cost estimates."

"Supply-side initiatives, focused on adjustments to payment, coverage, manpower and facilities policy, cannot curb the growth rate of healthcare costs alone," said Delegate Christensen, also a physician. "To bend the healthcare cost curve, we must also focus on the demand-side and slow the pace of health risk progression. That means preventing people from becoming sick in the first place, helping them reduce or delay their risk factors and better manage chronic conditions after they occur. An ounce of prevention really may be worth a pound of cure. We urge our colleagues to join us in improving the health of our nation by co-sponsoring or supporting H.R. 3148.”

In 2005, there were approximately 37.5 million Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries and that number is expected to grow to nearly 79 million by 2030. The Healthways study estimates the government will spend an average present value of $174,000 per beneficiary over the course of their tenure in the program, from age 65 until death. The total lifetime cost to the nation of the seniors enrolled in the Medicare FFS population in 2005 alone will be $6.5 trillion.

Working with the senior professional staff at Ingenix, Healthways researchers developed and tested several scenarios to assess the cost impact of preventing or slowing health risk progression for those beneficiaries, both before and after entry into Medicare. The researchers specifically asked, what if more people were healthier when they entered Medicare and stayed that way for longer.

The calculations yielded a range of potential savings that could accrue from a combination of health promotion, prevention and chronic care management initiatives of between $652 billion and $1.4 trillion over 10 years (in 2008 dollars), specifically:

• A modest scenario that reduces risk prior to and during the years of Medicare by increasing the proportion of Low Risk individuals at age 65 from 54 percent to 65 percent and preventing 10 percent of upward risk transitions that would otherwise occur during the years of Medicare was estimated to save $65.2 billion annually, or $652 billion in savings over 10 years
• A more forward scenario of increasing the proportion of Low Risk individuals at age 65 from 54 percent to 75 percent and preventing 50 percent of upward risk transitions that would otherwise occur during the years of Medicare was estimated to save $142.8 billion annually, or $1.4 trillion in savings over 10 years

The study also predicts that by preventing or slowing health risk progression, the average Medicare beneficiary would gain 2.4 to 5.7 years of life expectancy, and savings to the taxpayer would still accrue, despite the associated increases in longevity.

“This research validates what the government and healthcare industry have long suspected,” said Ben R. Leedle, Healthways chief executive officer. “There is the potential for an enormous cost benefit to the taxpayer from more focus on prevention, health promotion and chronic care management. I congratulate Representatives Christensen and Burgess for their expertise and leadership in this area, and I urge all of my colleagues in the healthcare industry to support them in their efforts.”

For more information or to arrange an interview with Congressman Burgess, please contact Lauren Bean at (202) 225-7772. To arrange an interview with Delegate Christensen, please contact Monique Clendinen Watson at (202) 226-7973. For more information about the Healthways research, please contact Todd Hastings at (615) 614-5358.

A full .PDF of the Healthways research report can be obtained at: http://www.healthways.com/trillions.

About Healthways

Healthways, Inc. (NASDAQ: HWAY) is the leading provider of specialized, comprehensive solutions to help millions of people maintain or improve their health and well-being and, as a result, reduce overall costs. Healthways’ solutions are designed to help healthy individuals stay healthy, mitigate and slow the progression to disease associated with family or lifestyle risk factors and promote the best possible health for those already affected by disease. Our proven, evidence-based programs provide highly specific and personalized interventions for each individual in a population, irrespective of age or health status, and are delivered to consumers by phone, mail, internet and face-to-face interactions, both domestically and internationally. Healthways also provides a national, fully accredited complementary and alternative Health Provider Network, offering convenient access to individuals who seek health services outside of, and in conjunction with, the traditional healthcare system. For more information, please visit www.healthways.com.

About the Center for Health Research

The Center for Health Research performs advanced analytics with data collected from millions of participants over twenty-five years of Healthways programming. Currently, Healthways houses six times the volume of data contained in the Library of Congress. That depth and breadth of information allows the team to conduct a vast range of research, and it is used to advance their thinking in all levels of healthcare. For access to our Virtual Research Library, and the reports published by the team at the Healthways Center for Health Research, go to www.healthways.com/research.

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