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The Good Health Company Launches -- Industry Experts Promote Value-Based Health Management

Posted on: Monday, 7 May 2007, 06:00 CDT

Leading industry experts Edward Sharpless and David Hoke announced today the launch of The Good Health Company.

The Good Health Company is "positioned to move the market away from data collection and health assessments, which ultimately result in silos focused on cost-compression, and towards value and health improvement," stated company President Edward Sharpless.

The founders promote this as the dawn of an era focusing on value, health improvement and efficient condition self-management.

"For over two years we have focused on how to move the industry from its traditional focus on health risk identification to better meet the needs and demands of today's corporate reality," said Hoke. "In today's market, it is not enough to count risk factors and claim economic impact. You must work with corporate America to address the key issues that are documented to drive their health care costs. Managing the health risks of the human capital within an organization requires a greater degree of flexibility and customization than ever before. Our Health Management 2.0 programs provide employers of any size this opportunity."

The center point of the Health Management 2.0 approach is the organization's integrated Behavioral Mapping(TM) concept. "We believe that the secret to behavior change lies in both content and delivery. So we 'map' individuals to interventions based on their risk, their health confidence, their readiness to change and their preferred method of learning. This map is then applied to our suite of interventions to identify the appropriate components of the intervention for that unique individual," stated Hoke. "When integrated as part of medical, pharmacy and disability benefit plan design, these tools find fertile opportunity to measurably improve individual vitality while contributing to enhanced workforce performance."

The entire approach is built on the Principle of Elasticity in Behavior Change(TM). Each person will move through the process of behavior change in a sequence and duration that is unique to them. "Fundamentally it is up to the person to determine the timeline for success, so why do most programs tell someone they only have 8 or 10 weeks to change a lifetime of habits?" asks Hoke. "We work to help people on their timeline, not an artificially created one."

Mr. Sharpless and Mr. Hoke first teamed up together in 2001 to create health interventions based on the research of Stanford University physician and researcher Dr. James F. Fries, whose outcomes-based programs have been unmatched in effectiveness for decades. "As knowledge regarding behavior change has evolved, so has our ability to understand the need for programmatic growth," said Sharpless, former CEO of Healthtrac, "which is why we have taken what we learned and built a whole new suite of integrated programs from the ground up." The Good Health Company was developed as the natural evolution of the pioneering work done by Dr. Fries on the Healthtrac Programs.

Hoke's history in the industry includes his role as the architect behind the University of Kentucky Health Literacy Programs and tenure as SCANA Corporation's inaugural Manager of Total Health and Productivity. In both of these roles, Hoke played a critical part in the development and deployment of highly successful and highly publicized programs.

Sharpless entered the industry as President & CEO of Healthtrac where he played a critical role in the enhancement of the work of Dr. Fries. The programs enjoyed extensive research, were critically acclaimed and won numerous awards, including six C. Everett Koop National Health Awards and the Disease Management Association of America (DMAA) award for "Best Application of Behavior Change Principles Applied to Disease Management" for programs developed by Sharpless.

"We are a disruptive force in the industry," says Sharpless, "Our goal is transparency in terms of pricing, program design, value and outcomes." The company has key initiatives focusing on retirees and seniors, value-based benefit design, and integrated disability management alongside the traditional employer-based market.

"Research clearly shows that condition self-management and enhanced self-efficacy boost health outcomes, improve adherence for individuals with chronic health conditions and directly delays the onset of disability," stated Hoke. "These are all critical and untapped frontiers which contribute to long-term health and cost issues for individuals and organizations alike."

 Contact:  The Good Health Company 867 E. High Street Suite 250 Lexington, KY 40502 877-472-6630  

SOURCE: The Good Health Company

Source: MARKET WIRE

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