PERSONALISED HEALTH SUPPORT FOR MEMBERS

In 2009, HCF launched My Health Guardian, our award-winning chronic disease management program which helped more than 50,000 Australians.   

Since 1932, one of the ways HCF has put the health of our members first is by taking a leadership position in the industry when it comes to offering more than just health insurance. HCF’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Andrew Cottrill, has championed the health of our members since he started with the health fund in 2004.

“One of the first tasks I was given when I came on as CMO was to make our members healthier. And one way of looking at that task is to consider chronic diseases that lead to hospitalisation if they’re not properly looked after. In those days we didn’t call it Uncommon Care, but they were the first steps towards it – being more active in our members’ health and trying to support them more,” explains Dr Cottrill.

Before launching what would become one of Australia’s biggest primary care interventions, HCF started with a randomised controlled trial that looked at helping members with three conditions – heart disease, diabetes and chronic obstructive airways disease.

From little things big things grow

“We looked at how telephone support could help our members. You might think phone calls can’t do that much but in fact if people are properly informed and they’re getting their pneumococcal vaccinations, or the proper eye checks and foot checks as diabetics, those things can make a difference,” explains Dr Cottrill.

“It’s good to be coaching people and supporting them but it’s not often done well in the busy world of healthcare. Often healthcare workers don’t get the chance to emphasise those important behavioural actions. This trial showed that it could make a difference and could have both a health and a financial impact.”

In 2009, the HCF board made a decision to invest $100 million with an international partner, which was Healthways International, one of the world’s largest wellbeing improvement companies, to deliver My Health Guardian, HCF’s award-winning health management program.

Within the first six months, Dr Cottrill says: “HCF’s My Health Guardian helped 25,000 people on a chronic disease management support program, which was unprecedented in Australia.”

How did My Health Guardian work?

“It looked at the risk profile of members, and if they were at high risk of hospital admission, they would get more support. For lower risk, they might have got a phone call every six months, to see how things are going with a little bit of dietary advice,” explains Dr Cottrill. The program covered 15 chronic conditions, like diabetes, coronary artery disease, asthma, osteoporosis, sleep apnoea and oncology.

“It was complemented with an app and a website which featured community forums, dietary recipes, a whole range of health risk assessments. I would say that was quite revolutionary – there were a number of funds that followed with variations, but we were the first health fund to launch a program like this at scale.”

Janice Isaacs, HCF’s Health and Wellbeing Relationship Manager, worked side by side with Dr Cottrill to launch the program in 2009. She explains there were two components to My Health Guardian: “There was the chronic disease management program, which was the telephone coaching program, with unlimited member access.

“The second component was for members who were healthy. It covered a broad spectrum across the health continuum. So we had members who had risk factors, maybe they were smokers with low physical inactivity, and they could use the wellbeing app, which by the end of the program was used by 40,000 members.”

Innovating with technology for Uncommon Care

In 2013, as an extension of My Health Guardian, HCF and Healthways partnered with Telstra to launch the largest-ever rollout of a telemonitoring program in Australia. The partnership provided tailored support to more than 25,000 members, drawing on Telstra’s mobile network and Healthways’ expertise in disease management. The program sent around 3,300 members easy-to-use WiFi-enabled devices to their homes, including weight scales, tools for measuring blood pressure, glucometers for monitoring blood glucose levels for people with diabetes or hypoglycaemia, and oximeters for measuring the oxygen saturation levels in blood.

Dr Cottrill explains: “The data was transmitted via the Telstra network back to our nurses who were monitoring the results daily and they were following up with those high-risk members. So we made sure it wasn’t just technology; it was technology in the context of having some clinical support around it.

“We monitored the members and we worked with them to get their health on track. We were also interacting with members’ GPs so we were careful to involve their own care providers – we didn’t want to take over the care, we wanted to support and link back to their GPs. That was true collaboration.”

The My Health Guardian program closed in 2019 to make way for more targeted programs. “At the end of the 10 years of intervention, we probably touched the lives of over 50,000 HCF members,” says Dr Cottrill.

Janice Isaacs says, “When we closed the program there quite a few people who came back and said, ‘but we really love the program, we love the coaches, we really enjoy talking to someone’. Sometimes people just need someone to talk to. That connection that HCF had with over 50,000 people who went through the program is hugely important.”

What’s the future of health and wellbeing for HCF?

Dr Cottrill explains that My Health Guardian was very successful, but it was “one size fits all”. HCF now offers a suite of more bespoke health management programs that are focused around particular needs. “Our challenge is matching up the person at the right time with the right program, like Healthy Weight for Life, our mental health programs, our COACH program. It makes more sense to have a short, sharp intervention.”

Janice adds that HCF is also focused on the “continuum of care for our members, helping them while they’re still healthy, in the prevention space with programs like HealthyMinds Check-in and cognitive behavioural programs like THIS WAY UP, through to chronic disease support. We also offer rehab and at-home hospital support.”

Dr Cottrill considers the priorities for members now and into the future: “It’s about a health partnership with our members, that we’re getting there together with our members, as their health partner, and that’s essentially what we are.”

Janice has worked at HCF for 21 years – she’s feeling very proud of HCF’s pioneering history: “We’ve come a long way in the health and wellbeing space. It’s become a priority for the business, and that makes me proud because we’ve worked hard to get here. Now we’re helping members with prevention, keeping our members healthy across the continuum of care, right through to discharge from hospital and beyond. We want to help every member at every stage of their health journey.”

Do you need help with your diet?

You may be eligible for The Healthy Weight for Life Essentials program, which supports HCF members to develop healthier habits, lose weight and prevent the onset of various chronic conditions like heart disease.

The Essentials program is available to HCF members who meet the program’s eligibility criteria including having:

• a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 28 and above
• multiple lifestyle risk factors like smoking, physical inactivity and poor nutrition
  
• HCF hospital cover.

Published August 2022