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Health Literacy: Closing the Gap Between Knowing and Doing Executive Summary There is a silent epidemic that is compounding the healthcare crisis - it’s called low health literacy. Nearly half of all American adults - up to 90 million people - have low literacy. It is a reality that directly impacts individuals’ ability to comprehend and act on health information, navigate the complex healthcare system, and make good decisions about their health. The financial impact of low health literacy is staggering at an estimated cost of up to $58 billion annually. For self-insured employers, the impact is even greater when you factor in lost productivity and short- and longterm disability expenditures.

Cardium Health commits to improving health literacy.

In an effort to control spiraling healthcare costs, employers are radically altering their health benefit plans with “carrot and stick” initiatives designed to support individuals to better manage their health, reward healthy behaviors, and share the financial burden with employees. These approaches are fundamentally transforming the healthcare system to be more market-driven and customer-centric.

Underlying the promise of this new paradigm is the assumption that individuals will know what they need to know to understand their options, make informed choices, and live healthier lives. Unfortunately, there is little basis for this assumption. Even the most well educated individuals are finding themselves unprepared as healthcare consumers. A multitude of factors combine to impede how well an individual can comprehend or act on health information, including education level, socio-economic status, cultural beliefs, workplace environment, and emotional state in health situations.

When people fail to understand how their lifestyle choices impact their health, or how to follow treatment plans recommended by their doctors, the result is often disease progression. In turn, quality of life slowly erodes. Productivity at work suffers and enjoyment of everyday activities declines. And the financial costs associated with disease progression and emergency room visits continue to escalate to unprecedented levels.

It’s a vicious cycle that only ends when an individual comes to understand the connection between their day-to-day lifestyle choices and their health, and finds the necessary motivation to change.

Improving health literacy is a key to unlocking the potential for people to become informed consumers, make good decisions and take responsibility for their health. The question now becomes: In the new healthcare model, what approach is best suited to recognize and overcome the limiting factors and help to educate, motivate and empower individuals? Physicians and nurses in clinical settings are so constrained by time pressures that it’s nearly impossible to give the individualized care that patients require. Additionally, the physical setting of a doctor’s office can be an intimidating place, especially for people with low health literacy.

Alternatively, the setting in which people are most relaxed and likely to retain information is in a comfortable environment such as their home or workplace. It is in this setting that telephonic health coaching takes place. An innovative, customized approach, it focuses on working with individuals one-on-one to provide them with the knowledge, support and motivation they need to manage their health. With a personal yet remote connection over the telephone, health coaches deliver clinical expertise and information in an honest, friendly and patient voice that says, “I care about you.”

At Cardium Health, we believe that recognizing and addressing the issue of health literacy offers the potential to improve the health of populations that currently account for the biggest expenditures of the nation’s healthcare dollars. For employers, it also offers the added benefit of improving workplace productivity.

We offer this perspective in an effort to raise awareness about the issue of health literacy, put the problem in context of the new healthcare paradigm, and share our thinking about an innovative and practical solution to this national crisis.

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Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion