Living Health
It's not a product or a plan – it's a promise.
Take a moment to dream.
Picture people receiving care, not just when they physically need it, but long before then and in ways that may even be unfelt, unseen. Picture clinicians, not bogged down in paperwork, but spending more time face to face with patients, and helping before health issues even arise.
Imagine a world where we’re focused on health, not health care. A system that brings everyone to the same table — the patient, the doctor, the insurer — to create something remarkable.
Highmark Health has already dreamt this. And now, we’re making it a reality.
It all starts with Living Health.
The future of health care
Our approach will completely change communities for the better. It will help Highmark members stay healthy, get them more engaged with their health, and make health care more affordable.
The Model
Our Living Health model puts the patient and clinician in the center of our system. It also recognizes that a person’s health team consists of multiple interaction points — from doctors and specialists to social support and wearable technology.
The Engine
Partnering with Google Cloud and Verily, we’re creating the analytical, data-driven engine that will fuel our model — the Living Health Dynamic Platform. This platform will ultimately provide unprecedented insights into a person’s entire health story.
The Experience
With this model and platform in place, we'll provide Highmark members with a new kind of health experience. Our Curated Design will deliver a plan for health when, where, and how people need it — and even before health issues start.
The Model: Living Health
We’re not just focusing on the relationship of the patient and the clinician — we’re changing the way it operates. Right now, a clinician may only see someone for a short period of time, for a specific issue, usually scheduled in advance. In the future, we’ll use a massive amount of data to step in ahead of time and engage people in their health even before they think of scheduling a doctor’s visit.
The Model: Living Health
We’re not just focusing on the relationship of the patient and the clinician — we’re changing the way it operates. Right now, a clinician may only see someone for a short period of time, for a specific issue, usually scheduled in advance. In the future, we’ll deploy data diagnostics to step in ahead of time and engage people in their health even before they think of scheduling a doctor’s visit.
“This partnership is truly symbiotic. Together, we will drive transformational and more sustainable change, and we will do it faster than we could working separately. With Google Cloud and Verily’s consumer experience and technology, we will deliver the scale needed to provide more people and their health teams access to the most cutting-edge digital and analytic tools to improve their health using a simplified and seamless approach.”
– Dr. Tony Farah, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical and Clinical Transformation Officer, Highmark Health
The Engine: Our Dynamic Platform
Together with Google Cloud and Verily, we are enhancing our technology — transforming our interfaces, modernizing our infrastructure and analytical capabilities, and building new systems when necessary. Yes: It’s all pretty complicated and it’s never been done before. But, once complete, we’ll have actionable data, giving people a personalized experience that focuses on their health, good or bad, and frees clinicians to offer real-time prevention and treatment.
The Engine: Our Dynamic Platform
Together with Google Cloud and Verily, we are enhancing our technology — transforming our interfaces, modernizing our infrastructure and analytical capabilities, and building new systems when necessary. Yes: It’s all pretty complicated and it’s never been done before. But, once complete, we’ll have actionable data, giving people a personalized experience that focuses on their health, good or bad, and frees clinicians to offer real-time prevention and treatment.
“The combination of Highmark Health’s deep understanding of patient behavior and clinical best practices, with Google Cloud’s technology capabilities and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning expertise, will accelerate access to the most cutting-edge tools for people to improve their health.”
- Andrew Moore, VP of Industry Solutions, Google Cloud
The Experience: Curated Design
Our new design will have health care operating differently — better. It will become an experience that is simple, easy, and streamlined for all parties. It will allow clinicians to focus on what’s important for Highmark members before there is a problem, and it will allow members to be and stay well. Watch the video to get a feel for a new kind of health experience.
Experience how different health care can be.
“As a leading integrated delivery network with a large population, Highmark is poised to show how a technology-enabled environment can help their members achieve better health in a personalized and accessible way that also lowers the costs of care.”
- Vivian Lee, MD, President of Health Platforms at Verily
Have questions?
We’re talking about the potential of the unknown and solutions that don’t yet exist — that’s a lot to take in. Review these FAQs to learn more.
Q: Who will benefit from Living Health?
A: In short, everyone.
Initially, this model will benefit Highmark’s entire customer base and our clinical partners. It will give Highmark members a personalized plan for their health that allows them to engage in healthy behaviors, and it will provide clinicians with actionable data and countless insights. Not to mention, it will alleviate massive administrative burdens and help lower costs across the board.
We hope that eventually our successful model will be mirrored and adopted by others in our space, so that everyone may benefit from a better health care experience.
Q: It feels like health care has been broken for a while — why change it now?
A: Simply put: It’s the right thing to do. Our members and clinicians deserve a better way to live and work. And we’re promising to deliver just that.
The health system is fragmented and overly complicated. It’s full of reactive behaviors, increased costs, and at times, subpar outcomes. Highmark Health isn’t going to wait for someone else to fix it — we’re taking it on ourselves.
When we’re done, health care will become something predictive — something offering comprehensive treatment, real-time prevention that’s actionable, and the best possible outcomes. Health care will become simply health.
Q: I’ve heard of similar models before — what makes Highmark Health any different?
A: At our core, we’re set up differently. As a blended health organization, we approach things with both the payer — health care insurer — and the provider — our health care network — at the same table with our members and patients.
By having all sides involved in every critical conversation, we can shape a new model of care better than anyone else. On top of that, we’ve partnered with Google Cloud — giving top technology leaders a seat at the table to help build the solution we envision.
Q: What’s the distinction between health and health care?
A: Health care has traditionally been the effort to fix a person's problems after they arise. It’s reactive, after the fact, and is always the most expensive way to address conditions or disease states. Living Health is all about being proactive, identifying the warning signs of potential issues long before the actual condition arises. And, in addressing those warning signs, it looks far beyond the traditional disease state fixes of health care — it explores factors that affect outcomes like transportation issues, lack of access to fresh food, neighborhood safety, difficulty in obtaining prescription medicine, as well as family history, and traditional indicators of particular issues. This is a focus on the health of the individual, not just on fixing problems after they present, which is the domain of health care.
Q: Is patient data safe?
A: Yes. As always, we handle patient data with the utmost safety — as evidenced by five years of HITRUST Certification and other industry recognitions.
Built on top of Google Cloud’s secure, reliable infrastructure, privacy, security and data ethics will be guiding principles of the Living Health Dynamic Platform. Highmark Health will continue to control access to and use of its customer data using rigorous, long-standing organizational privacy controls and governance that will be overseen by a joint Data Privacy and Ethics Council.
At all times, Google functions and serves as a business associate of Highmark Health and complies with all prescriptions and prohibitions set forth by the terms of the Business Associate Agreement (BAA). Google cannot use data for purposes that are not permitted by the BAA. Additionally, Google must comply with the standards set by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules.
Highmark Health’s members and patients own their health information. As a provider and health plan, Highmark Health controls all access to and use of its customers’ information.
Simply put: All patient and member data is being encrypted and Highmark Health will hold the keys to any and all access to that data.
Q: What is Google Cloud?
A: Google Cloud is widely recognized as a global leader in delivering a secure, open, intelligent, and transformative enterprise cloud platform. Its technology is built on Google’s private network and is the product of nearly 20 years of innovation in security, network architecture, collaboration, artificial intelligence, and open source software. It offers a simply engineered set of tools and unparalleled technology across Google Cloud Platform and G Suite that help bring people, insights, and ideas together. Customers across more than 150 countries trust Google Cloud to modernize their computing environment for today’s digital world.
Q: Why collaborate with Google Cloud?
A: Our vision for Living Health requires an engine that can deliver on the promise to fix health care — to make it simple, seamless, and smart. To make that happen, we needed to partner with the best of the best.
After rigorous evaluation and discussions with several companies, Google Cloud emerged as the most innovative and dynamic collaborator in terms of talent, technology, and expertise.
Google Cloud aligns with our vision of creating a 21st century health model that delivers value and a remarkable experience to both customers and clinicians. Separately, our companies are already transforming the traditional health care industry. When you combine Highmark Health’s long history as an industry leader with Google Cloud’s technology and health expertise, the result is a collaboration that will give individuals and clinicians the technology platform and solutions that remove frustration and obstacles and make a remarkable health experience not only possible, but expected.
Q: What is Verily?
A: Launched in 2015, Verily is a subsidiary of Alphabet focused on life sciences and health care. Verily’s mission is to make the world’s health data useful so that people enjoy healthier lives. Verily develops tools and devices to collect, organize, and activate health data, and creates interventions to prevent and manage disease. The organization partners with leading life sciences, medical devices, and government organizations — using deep hardware, software, scientific, and health care expertise to enable faster development, meaningful advances, and deployment at scale.
Q: Why collaborate with Verily?
A: Taking patient comorbidities, interests, and goals into account, Verily offers the advanced analytics, artificial intelligence expertise, and next generation medical devices needed to jointly develop solutions that will combine multiple sources and types of data to determine the appropriate next set of actions for each patient.
The organization also has deep expertise and a proven track record in developing clinical validation and evidence for their solutions, including a longstanding relationship working with the FDA on devices that require their approval.
Sharing in our vision of moving health care from reactive and episodic treatment to proactive and preventive care, and ready to customize and integrate their solutions into Living Health, Verily will help us develop the best possible solutions for our clients and members.
Q: How will Google Cloud, Verily, and Highmark Health work together?
A: One word: Collaboration.
Google Cloud and Verily both fall under the umbrella company Alphabet, so they are already positioned for strong collaboration. Combining the work we’ve already done to transform the traditional health care industry — with Google Cloud’s technology and Verily’s expertise in integrating health care data and technology — results in a collaboration that will give individuals and clinicians the technology platform and solutions that remove frustration and obstacles and make a remarkable health experience not only possible, but expected.
On an operational level, Verily will join the Joint Steering Committee with Google Cloud and Highmark. We will also establish a separate Highmark and Verily Steering Committee to oversee our work together.
