Preventive Care ROI

The Problem

Preventive care can reduce the risk of diseases, disabilities and death. Less than 10% of American adults across all age groups receive all recommended high-priority clinical preventive services (Borksy, A., et al. 2018).

My hypothesis is that people don't prioritize preventive care because there is no immediate risk or loss of health involved. For example, one of the factors making it hard for smokers to quit is that the potential health risks are usually not immediate, making it easy to ignore. However, once the health risks are realized it is too late to apply primary preventive care. My hypothesis follows that if people were aware of the quantifiable cost to them not prioritizing preventive health measures, they would be more likely to seek preventive services.

The Product

To inform people of the potential cost involved I would need to first quantify the cost. This can be done through multiplying the probability of the individual to develop a particular disease and the cost of treating that disease. The probability data can be found on CDC's website and the cost data can be found on Bureau of Labor Statistics' website. To provide a more generic cost calculation I could add up all the costs for each disease. However, I think a personalized calculation would be more effective in persuading individuals. Thus, I would ask them a few screening questions such as "What is your age?", "Do you smoke?", etc. to provide a more detailed cost analysis. Finally, I would provide the individual with a custom preventive care services suggestion that would list the potential cost of receiving the services and the return on investment from not developing the diseases they are seeking to prevent.