Case Study Consumer-Driven Health Care

improve health, second, to reduce medical care costs, and third, to prove effectiveness at the first two goals. The business plan was formed around the belief that the only reason not to purchase a program which improved health and saved money for the sponsor would be the absence of convincing proof. For this reason, and helped by the development of Healthtrac from an academic background, extremely rigorous product evaluation has been a part of all activities. These three goals have shaped product development since they constrain the types of products offered to those which can be both effective and cost-effective. In turn, these goals dictate content, presentation, program cost, and delivery mechanism. Healthtrac endeavors are based on a large body of science, some of which is specifically elaborated in the issue papers above, with substantial contributions from the author’s research group at Stanford. Some central postulates establish the mandate. Eighty percent of illness in the United States is chronic. Seventy percent of this is preventable. There is wide variability in use of costly medical resources between states, between cities, between physicians, and, most importantly, between patients. Health care in United States is extremely costly by international standards, and yet we are not the healthiest nation. Minimum attention to prevention an