Hot Take: Why Health Plans Should Support Family Caregivers

What happens when we overlook the backbone of home healthcare? Join Dr. Venus Wong, a leading expert in health equity and data, to explore an often-ignored aspect of healthcare delivery: family caregivers. With nearly 20% of Americans serving as family caregivers, their impact on both clinical outcomes and healthcare costs cannot be overstated. Dr. Wong sheds light on how unaddressed depression among caregivers can significantly increase medical expenses, underscoring the importance of supporting these vital contributors to home health strategies.

Listen and Learn:

• Invaluable role of family caregivers
• Insights and practical solutions that promise not only to uplift family caregivers but also to deliver tangible financial benefits 
• How happier, healthier caregivers equate to better patient outcomes

Expert: Venus Wong, PhD, BCBA

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
There are times in the world and life when a
discovery changes how we dothings.
Hi, I'm Shelley Schoenfeld.
Join me on this journey ofdiscovery as we unfold a whole
person health delivery sciencefor people in need.
Welcome to Human ResilienceChanging the Way Healthcare is
Delivered.
In this episode, we'll hearfrom Dr Venus Wong, health
equity and data expert, who'llshare the benefits to health

(00:23):
plans of supporting familycaregivers from a clinical
outcomes and medical costperspective.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Approximately 20% of Americans are family caregivers.
This can be you, me or someonewhom we know.
Family caregivers offer socritical and foundational care
for your members and yourpatients, but oftentimes, when
we think about our home healthstrategies or hospital at home

(00:54):
strategies, we forget about them.
We don't think about them andyou may wonder why do I have to
care?
They're not my members.
The reality is that havinghappy, healthy family caregiver
actually is a valid propositionfor you.
Let's use depression as anexample.
Some conservative estimation ofthe prevalence of depression in

(01:20):
family caregivers shows thatapproximately 20% of family
caregivers are depressed.
If one of your members who hasa depressed caregiver, you will
see an increase of thispatient's medical care by $1,300

(01:41):
in six months and you will alsosee a 4% increase in the
caregiver medical expenditure.
Caregiver matters.
The good news is that wealready know the evidence-based
assessment and intervention inorder to support this group of

(02:05):
family caregivers, like programslike REACH or patient education
, are widely available on theinternet, you know, for your
clinicians to learn how to do it.
Or, even better, there are lotsof digital health solutions
today that actually focus onfamily caregiver.
Many of these solutions,especially the evidence-based

(02:27):
programs, they not only have theclinical evidence, but they
actually also have the financialROI.
So what I have seen in theliterature is that some of these
interventions can reducemedical care costs by almost
$2,000, $3,000 per year if youleverage this program to support

(02:53):
family caregivers.
So this is a very significantnumber.
The opportunity here today isyou have a chance to actually
support one of the biggestproblems in the United States
the family care doing crisis butin the meantime also reduce the

(03:15):
care costs for your member.