Highmark Pilots Disease-Tracking Tech Program to Help Members Avoid Illness

  • Mar 17, 2023

    Although spring is just around the corner, many families are still reeling from an autumn and winter season that served up a severe onslaught of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza cases. But also starting last fall, select members of Highmark Inc. health plans have been given access to a tool that helps them mitigate their risk: a “local illness alert” program that offers regular, data-driven reports about what’s going around in their area. 

    The insurer and the company Kinsa, which developed the tool, tell AIS Health, a division of MMIT, that there is already evidence that the pilot program is driving behavioral changes among members, such as avoiding crowded indoor spaces when illness levels are high. And if final results from the pilot also look promising, Highmark will expand the program to more members — possibly spurring other insurers to do the same.  

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  • Leslie Small

    Leslie has been working in journalism since 2009 and reporting on the health care industry since 2014. She has covered the many ups and downs of the Affordable Care Act exchanges, the failed health insurer mega-mergers, and hundreds of other storylines spanning subjects such as Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage, employer-sponsored insurance, and prescription drug coverage. As the managing editor of Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits, she writes and edits for both publications while overseeing a small team of reporters who also focus on the managed care sector. Before joining AIS Health, she was a senior editor for the e-newsletter Fierce Health Payer, and she started her career as a copy editor at multiple local newspapers. She graduated with a dual degree in journalism and political science from Penn State University.

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