Gain insights into the social drivers of health and provider shortages that may be impacting your employees and their communities.

By identifying and measuring key factors that can influence the health of employees and their families, Aon’s propriety Health Equity and Affordability Tool (HEAT) helps professional service firms make better decisions about the design of their health benefits and subsidy structures.

The tool uses population-specific inputs and data sources like the Area Deprivation Index (ADI) and the Health Resources & Services Administration Data Warehouse.

HEAT Provides Four Output Components

• Affordability – HEAT compares projected participant out-of-pocket costs to household income and categorizes the resulting affordability level by geographic region. Low affordability (when participants pay more than 10% of their income on healthcare) can lead to declining population health.
   
• Area Deprivation – HEAT provides area rankings based on an academically-vetted (UW Madison) methodology that includes data on income, education, employment and housing quality. Living in a disadvantaged area has been linked to several undesirable healthcare outcomes, including higher rates of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
   
• Primary Care Physician Shortage – HEAT identifies when participants are living in a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) for primary care doctors. Provider shortages drive higher costs and affordability issues through increased utilization of inappropriate care settings and lower preventive screening rates.
   
• Mental Health Provider Shortage – HEAT identifies participants living in a HPSA for mental health professionals. Shortages of such providers are common across the U.S., leading many professional services firms to invest in additional resources to connect participants with the care they need.
   

Industry-Specific Analysis

While HEAT primarily focuses on the dynamics of the geographical areas that contain a firm’s population, certain characteristics are compared to both the professional services industry and Aon’s entire database.

Customization

Customized analysis tailored to a firm’s actual plan designs and profile will produce the most insightful reports and requires:

• High-level medical/Rx plan designs (deductible, coinsurance, out-of-pocket maximum)
   
• De-identified census including all eligible employees and equity partners (if applicable) with date of birth, gender, home zip code, base salary, medical plan election, medical plan coverage tier, and medical plan payroll deduction
   
• Optional for a complete financial benchmarking: full medical plan rates or COBRA rates
   

 

Next Steps

For more information about Aon’s Health Equity and Affordability Tool, including a complimentary cost analysis, please send an email to [email protected] or reach out directly to Mark Scarafone or Jake Delman.





Mark Scarafone
Senior Vice President and Health & Benefits Leader
Radnor, PA







Jake Delman
Senior Consultant
Washington, DC