SAP Announces NEW Strategic Healthcare Relationships

Because I practiced very poor keyboard posture over the past five years, it was no surprise that I woke up in the middle of the night last December with numb, throbbing hands.

During the course of my Carple Tunnel diagnosis, I realized that it's important to "shop around" for the least expensive, but highest quality of care. One hospital charged $1,300 out-of-pocket for an MRI while an imaging facility charged only $495 for the same procedure.

The process of researching healthcare prices is frustrating to say the least.

I hit my yearly deductible amount and now only pay 10% of my healthcare bills. However, in a conversation with Castlight Health's Executive Vice President, John McCracken, at SAPPHIRE NOW, I learned that it's actually my employer, not my insurance company, who pays my surplus.

Castlight Health Eliminates Frustration in Finding Quality Care

McCracken explained that Castlight Health is dedicated to eliminating the complexity and frustration in finding the highest quality care at the most reasonable cost.

Castlight was co-founded by Dr. Giovanni Colella out of dissatisfaction in his ability to navigate the US health system while caring for his sick mother. Working with co-founders, Todd Park and Bryan Roberts, the three built Castlight with a mission to empower people to make the best choices for their health and to help companies make the most of their health benefits.

Studies show that employees who are healthy (both physically and mentally) perform better at work. Specifically, SAP measures a Health Culture Index proving that for each percentage point increase in employee satisfaction with health and balance, operating profit was impacted between €75M and €85M (2015).

Therefore, it's not only beneficial for employers to keep their employees healthy, but it's imperative for business success.

The Amazon.com of Healthcare Services

Castlight prides itself on serving as the Amazon.com of shopping for doctors. Its digital platform exposes the cost data associated with same procedure from one health system to the next. This helps patients stay healthier and also helps employers save healthcare costs while increasing employee productivity.

At SAPPHIRE NOW this past May, SAP announced the new SAP® Connected Health platform and strategic relationships with Castlight Health, Dharma Platform, and CancerLinQ.

The SAP Connected Health platform runs on SAP HANA, and it aims to form a broad ecosystem of healthcare partners (from payers to providers to researchers) that will accelerate the development and delivery of innovative patient-centered solutions. The goal is to improve health outcomes, reduce costs, and deliver connected healthcare services.

Taking a Proactive Approach to Health

In compliance with all HIPAA regulations, Castlight anonymously profiles patients using its system to better supply personalized information that may be of interest to individual users. By tapping into de-identified health insurance claim information, Castlight is able to send personalized push notifications to patients. Thus, providing them with more information on programs like prenatal care, diabetes management, and depression prevention.

Castlight works to make sure its customers' employees are made aware of certain benefits tailored to their needs, and that they can take an active approach to living a healthier life.

"Castlight is thrilled to be one of the first partners on the SAP Connected Health platform," said Giovanni Colella, M.D., Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Castlight Health. "Our companies are joining together to work toward a shared goal of improving the healthcare system and reducing costs. Using data to drive engagement with healthcare is at the core of everything Castlight does. This extraordinary effort to create an interoperable data platform will help unleash the power of technology to drive better healthcare decisions and outcomes."

For more on the new SAP Connected Health solution and its strategic partners, read the press release and watch therecorded panel discussion from SAPPHIRE NOW.

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This story originally appeared in SAP Business Trends.