Savvier Health and PatientSchool.net Launch Landmark Health Empowerment Study and Offer Companies Free Employee Health Internet Presence

Savvier Health and Patient School are partnering to launch a landmark health empowerment study to evaluate the impact of easy-to-understand training on medical outcomes and health care expenditures.

(PRWEB) March 26, 2006 -- Many American businesses are being crippled with escalating health insurance premiums that outpace their earnings. National health care expenditures are predicted to reach 18.7% of the GDP by 2014. The bright side is that empowered Americans can play a tremendous role in easing the seemingly catastrophic scenario out country is facing.

In its ongoing efforts to optimize the health of businesses and the public at large, Savvier Health plans to conduct a series of 6 month pilot studies on the effects of combining nontraditional patient empowerment education with the traditional patient education that is readily available on the Internet and through other sources.

For the purposes of this study, ‘nontraditional empowerment’ includes the following:

1. How to develop and maintain a personal copy of vital health records to facilitate care and minimize redundancy/waste in the health care system

2. How to communicate with health care professionals in a time-efficient, cost-effective manner to facilitate care while lowering costs

3. How to think along the lines that physicians think, thus enabling one to think through the standard medical decision-making process of assessing a new medical problem before seeing the doctor

4. How to research a medical condition and subsequently write about it in a way that will reinforce one's knowledge and provide education to others

5. How to obtain useful information on one's private physician's office practices and incorporate this into a cost-saving, time-saving strategy to optimize care

6. How to research and successfully implement life-altering lifestyle changes, such as smoking cessation, weight loss, and exercise

Each participating company will receive its own page on the Patient School Web site (i.e. http://patientschool.net/anycompany.html). This page will display the company's logo, 1 photograph (supplied in JPEG format), a short message from the HR director or other designated party, tips on how to partner in one’s health care, healthy living articles, a link to the PatientSchool.net homepage, and links to discounts on Patient School educational products and services, including our online Private School, which provides physician-led intensive training on how to partner in one’s health care to maximize health while minimizing costs.

In addition, Savvier Health will include up to 3 polls/forms for employees to fill out online (anonymously) to gather benefits/health information each company deems important to its organization.

Companies will be asked to notify employees of this special site at time 0, 1, 2, and 3 months, and again at 6 months. At the beginning of each company's participation, employees will be prompted to fill out a brief questionnaire regarding their level of comfort accessing and navigating the health care system, their financial outlay for medical expenses, the quality of care they receive, and their level of confidence in their ability to serve as their own best health care advocate. After the 6 month period they will again be asked to fill out this brief questionnaire and their responses will be compared to their prior ones (via a unique ID# assigned to each participant). It is important to note, at no time will any employee be required to give any type of identifying information and participation must be voluntary.

There is no obligation to purchase any product or service, though those who opt to do so will be asked to give feedback regarding its efficacy in lowering health care costs and improving care and these findings will be included in the final report. This feedback will provide important information that will allow a comparison between those who utilized the broad information accessed through the homepage and those who coupled this with the more advanced empowerment skills taught in the online Private School. In addition, it will allow comparison of their level of comfort and expertise before and after the pilot study.

When the study is complete, the human resource director will receive a detailed report of the findings of his respective company and how these findings compare to other participating (unnamed) companies, along with recommendations on how his company may improve the status of its employees and lower its long term health care costs. There will be no charge to participating companies. Each dedicated Web page will be available for unlimited access by the company’s officers and employees for a period of 12 months.

Organizations, churches, and civic groups are also welcome to participate.

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