The need for change defies simple solutions, as illustrated by citizens’ dissatisfaction levels. Some observers have suggested that more capacity and money is the solution, for example, but healthcare expenditures among seven surveyed countries are among the highest in the world. Others argue that the healthcare system models for financing and delivering healthcare (public versus private) is the answer. However, these countries have similar problems even though they have different models for financing and delivering healthcare. The aforementioned drivers are impacting healthcare providers in four areas:

• Greater focus on value from the entire healthcare system, including CDOs • Increasing need to activate responsible citizens • New approaches to promoting health and delivering care • Growing resource challenges.

Redefining value – From “sick care” to Healthcare

Transforming healthcare requires a corresponding transformation in understanding the value that care providers deliver. In many countries, the main focus of care providers is to diagnose and treat sick people. Although this is clearly valuable and necessary, a reactive healthcare system that is not engaged until a patient is ill incurs high – increasingly unaffordable – costs in caring for the illness. Additionally, the damage to health and functioning inflicted by many diseases, particularly in their more advanced states, cannot be reversed. Restoration of full pre-disease health for those with chronic illnesses, for example, may be unattainable, regardless of the healthcare resources expended. Sick care is a very expensive form of care. Consider chronic conditions, such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer, which together account for more than half of the world’s disease burden.14 Reactive healthcare systems that primarily treat patients after the onset of disease incur tremendous costs. But, a system that is focused on proactive care strategies, such as personalized prevention, prediction, early detection/treatment and disease management, can help create and maintain a healthier population, possibly at a lower cost.

ichard Schulz, CEO of HealthSouth in Scottsdale and chairman of the American Heart Association’s Arizona Heart Walk, knows a healthy lifestyle doesn’t happen by accident. It takes work. And, something else. “You have to make it fun,” Schulz says. In his chairman duties, Schulz meets with representatives from companies to participate and to secure sponsorships for the Heart Walk. The Heart Walk is a non-competitive 5K walk/run and 1-mile walk at Tempe Town Lake. The event, in its 20th year, celebrates those who have made lifestyle changes and encourages others to make changes to feel better and to live longer. It also serves as the Phoenix chapter’s of the American Heart Association’s major fundraiser, spokeswoman Jessica Brown says. The goal this year is to raise $900,000 for research, outreach and education, Brown said.

About 15,000 people are expected to take part in the walk:

Large health-related employers tend to big players in the event, Brown says. For example, Banner Health, which runs 14 hospitals, three research centers and other properties in Arizona, had nearly 1,000 registered Heart Walk participants in 2011. Catholic Healthcare West, which operates three hospitals in the area, had 1,023.

Besides the walk, Schulz encourages companies to make a commitment to making becoming fit companies:

As part of that commitment, HealthSouth, Banner and Catholic Healthcare West have engaged in a program with the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association called “My Heart. My Life.” The program is designed to change the way Americans think about their health. It’s about embracing an overall healthier lifestyle to improve cardiovascular health. This movement is a national rallying cry for change, Brown said, through simple behaviour adjustments that help people feel better and live longer. The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association has developed a number of activities under the umbrella of My Heart. My Life. Among them: increased health education, advocacy for better public policy in important health areas such as anti-smoking laws, and helping communities find ways to eat healthier and stay physically active. “We see examples every day at work,” Schulz says. But other kinds of companies are also climbing on the wellness bandwagon, he says.

                One such company is Scottsdale Insurance. A subsidiary of Nationwide Insurance, Scottsdale Insurance specializes in excess and surplus policies as well as specialty insurance. If you run a fund-raising golf tournament with a car as a prize for hitting a hole-in-one, Scottsdale Insurance will write a policy so that one lucky shot doesn’t submarine your charitable intentions. Scottsdale Insurance employs about 1,400. Most are in the Valley, but the company has agents across the country. The parent company encourages community involvement. Pete Harper, vice president of finance and CFO, was drawn to the American Heart Association because some relatives had suffered from cardiovascular problems. The Heart Walk promoted awareness of the need for fitness at the company, which has increased. “Now, you’ll see groups of walkers at lunchtime,” he says. Harper said that as the company became more health conscious, he did, too. Before, about the only thing I did was play racquetball,” he says. A healthier workforce is more productive and experiences lower absenteeism, Harper says. Although some of the benefits are difficult to quantify, others are not. “We’ve seen slower growth in our health care-related costs than other companies,” he says.

                And heart health is at the heart of the matter. Heart disease was the No. 1 killer in the U.S. in 2009 (the most recent year that figures are available), the Centers for Disease Control reported. Stroke was No. 4. “Heart disease is an area we have some control