LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Humana Inc. today announced the filing of applications for five patents in pharmacy and health metrics by its Innovation Center. All five of the patent applications are for Humana's use of innovative information technology applications to engage consumers in health benefits.
The patent applications represent a breakthrough in health benefits consumerism, as they are based on intellectual property developed by Humana to empower consumers to choose and use their benefits with confidence.
"The two patents filed by the Innovation Center on behalf of its Center for Health Metrics represent Humana's growing ability to use predictive modeling to help anticipate future costs and clinical events, a vital element that helps power our consumer engagement strategies within our clinical programs," said Carol J. McCall, vice president of the Center for Health Metrics (CHM).
One CHM patent application focuses on the innovative process used to generate "care maps" for members, allowing Humana to depict a member's complete clinical claims history over a period of two years. These use advanced visualization techniques to characterize an individual's clinical and behavioral profile, and in conjunction with the predictive model are used in clinical programs to help members manage and coordinate their clinical conditions. The second CHM patent application is to protect Humana's proprietary predictive model itself, which uses a number of advanced analytic techniques to predict members' future illness.
"The three pharmacy management patent applications would protect the process and tools Humana provides its members to make informed choices as to which drugs will be best for their health and for their finances," said William Fleming, PharmD, vice president of pharmacy and clinical integration. One of those pharmacy patent applications would register Humana's RxImpact Drug List which for the first time in the industry's history categorizes drugs based on their impact on health, not their cost.
Another of the pharmacy patent applications is for the RxCalculator tool, which enables members to model and plan their medication use and financing according to their own needs and priorities. The third patent application is for the Pharmacy Personal Care Account that is part of the company's RxImpact pharmacy benefit option. This option fosters a behavior change in members by encouraging them to think about medications as a buying decision. When a member finds a drug that is less than the allowance amount, the difference saved is placed into the pharmacy PCA, which can be used for other IRS- qualified healthcare purchases.
