The integration of information systems with these processes aimed at supporting holistic health (Kelley, Attridge, 31, 33) is the most rapidly expanding area of capital investment by organizations looking to transform their health benefit strategies. It is essential for information systems to support these underlying processes if individualized health benefit programs are to be created and tracked over time. The integration of processes, systems and the roles of benefit planners and administrators is crucial if measurability is going to be possible with any health benefit program. Bringing informatics to the individualized tracking of health programs for employees is an evolving best practice that serves as a knowledge foundation (Bath, 501) for fine-tuning programs even further. Putting the employee, not the process, at the center of the analytics and measurement of health care strategy performance is crucial if results are to be consistently achieved. The challenge is that in many organizational cultures, the tendency is to focus first on measuring processes or mitigating loss from healthcare costs (White, 22, 23) versus the measurement of gain from greater health being achieved by employees (Lump, 34). Individualized metrics or measures of improvement in specific health conditions are also being tailored to the specific needs of employees, often with significant results in their improvement of potentially debilitating diseases and conditions. Cultures of organizations that are based on measurable results have the greatest potential for achieve lasting change (Alavi, Yasin, 140, 141). At the individualized level, the use of informatics gives positive feedback to employees as to their progress towards health related objectives. At the division and organizational level, these same Telematics and metrics of performance give organizations feedback as to how effective their strategic plans for health benefits are performing. This approach to measuring and modifying strategies based on results is emerging as the catalyst of change in 21st century health benefits strategies and will serve as the catalyst for organizations to more rapidly change their cultures.
Summary
There is a fundamental shift occurring...
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