{"id":158,"date":"2020-11-10T17:04:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T17:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wellai.health\/blog\/?p=158"},"modified":"2021-12-30T04:16:41","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T04:16:41","slug":"wellais-health-cost-savings-calculator-the-elaborate-symptom-checker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wellai.health\/blog\/wellais-health-cost-savings-calculator-the-elaborate-symptom-checker\/","title":{"rendered":"WellAI\u2019s Health Cost Savings Calculator \u2013 The Elaborate Symptom Checker"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is part 5 of the series on the WellAI\u2019s health cost savings calculator for CEOs, CFOs and heads of HR.\u00a0 Today we will very briefly explain how cost savings from an elaborate symptom checker calculated.<\/p>\n

We have addressed skepticism about symptom checkers in our blog \u2018The Truth About Digital Symptom Checkers No One Would Tell You<\/a>\u2019.\u00a0 Despite the drawbacks, symptom checkers could be useful and often critical in addressing some of the current fears of visiting doctor\u2019s offices.\u00a0 According to a recent survey, 71% (!) of Americans are fearful of visiting a doctor due to the pandemic.\u00a0 At WellAI, we believe the next gen symptom checkers based on forward looking scientific medical data could eliminate people\u2019s fears, reduce anxiety, and decrease the number GP and ER visits.<\/p>\n

Based on our conservative assumptions mentioned in another blog \u201cWellAI\u2019s Health Cost Savings Calculator \u2013 It Is Critical to Use Conservative Assumptions!<\/a>\u201d, namely the participation rate for the WellAI estimated elaborate symptom checker of 43.4%, the GP visit reduction by 14% and the ER visit reduction by 18%, we can calculate saving to total health spending from employee utilization of the WellAI elaborate symptom checker.\u00a0 For this calculation, we also need an estimate of a portion of total health care spending from the GP visits and a portion of total health care spending from the ER visits.\u00a0 Based on the June 2020 study by Goetzel et al in the American Journal of Health Promotion, they are 47.7% and 8.4%, respectively.<\/p>\n

Hence,\u00a0the health cost savings from fewer GP visits are estimated at 3.7%<\/b>\u00a0(= 0.18 x 0.477 x 0.434).\u00a0\u00a0The health cost savings from fewer ER visits are estimated at 0.5%<\/b>\u00a0(= 0.14 x 0.084 x 0.434).\u00a0 Leading world data scientists, including the ones at WellAI, are working to get these numbers to more realistic health cost savings of\u00a025%<\/b>\u00a0(= 0.7 x 0.477 x 0.75) and\u00a04.2%<\/b>\u00a0(= 0.66 x 0.084 x 0.75) from fewer doctor\u2019s office visits and fewer ER visits, respectively.\u00a0 Notice that the AI technology, including digital symptom checkers, is far more effective in reducing routine doctor\u2019s office visits than in reducing the ER visits, partly, of course, because people use ER visits far less often.<\/p>\n

All in all, depending on employees demographics of a particular company, number of people with chronic diseases, participation rate, and the type of insurance plan, among many other factors,\u00a0the WellAI Health Cost Savings Calculator predicts 34% to 45% savings in an employer health costs<\/b>.\u00a0 These savings are sourced from 5 factors:<\/p>\n