One suicide is too many. Yet more than 47,000 Americans die each year as a result of suicide. Because suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in our nation, we at Magellan Health believe it is nothing short of a public health crisis. Thankfully many experts and organizations agree.

Recently, Magellan had the privilege to host a suicide prevention conference in Boise, Idaho. The free conference brought almost 200 local and national leaders together to exchange ideas, share successes and discuss solutions around the challenges we face together in addressing this crisis in our communities. Suicide is a topic that’s difficult, but we must talk about it and deal with it by creating an environment for genuine caring for one another. To have the greatest impact possible, this should start by encouraging those who are struggling to ask for help, and we need to remind one another to watch for signs and signals with our family, friends and colleagues.

The suicide crisis is particularly impacting the state of Idaho. In 2017, Idaho’s suicide rate was 22.9 per 100,000 residents. The state’s suicide rate is 58 percent higher than the national rate and reflects a 44 percent increase over the past 10 years.

During the conference, Dr. Michael F. Hogan, principal, Hogan Health Solutions, LLC, gave one of three keynote addresses. He spoke about opportunities to prevent suicide in all healthcare settings. As I shared in my remarks at the conference, I wholeheartedly agree with his perspective. From the examination room to the boardroom, healthcare leaders and executives play a critical role in helping solve this crisis. We must lead the charge—drawing in other key stakeholders like providers, lawmakers, teachers and family members to support efforts to make this crisis visible, reduce stigma and drive solutions.

One important place to start is by ensuring people understand the signs of suicide. First, we must increase education and awareness and promote community and statewide educational programs. We should focus on an audacious goal, a path to zero suicides, to drive the sense of urgency needed to get community-wide buy-in. In addition, we should invest in suicide training for family members and peers of those with a mental health diagnosis. Such training fosters early detection and, in the case of peer support, provides a common frame of reference, making individuals more likely to engage.

Second, we must work to break the stigma around mental health issues — and normalize the need for care. As Dr. Thomas Joiner, The Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Florida State University, said during his keynote address, “Reach out and tell someone when you see that someone is desperate. These person to person connections as we look out for each other can have such a significant impact in reducing suicides. It is important to keep in mind that all of us hold an important role in caring for one another.” Creating opportunities for open dialogue in the community, like the workshops during our Boise conference, helps shine a light on the problem and engages more people in helping others before it’s too late.

Finally, improved access to care and early screening will go a long way toward reducing the risk of suicide. Ensuring people of all economic status and backgrounds have access to behavioral healthcare is key. However, finding specialists who are skilled in suicidology isn’t easy. One study in Maricopa County, Ariz., determined that only 30 percent of behavioral health professionals in the county believed they had the necessary skills and support to treat at-risk patients. We need increased funding for suicide training among all medical professions.

As many as 38 percent of people making a suicide attempt did so within a week of a healthcare visit. Our healthcare system must look for ways to support early detection by making depression screenings part of every primary care visit. To help identify patients with mental health conditions, Magellan Healthcare has developed SmartScreener^SM. SmartScreener is a digital application that contains standard screening tools used by behavioral health professionals like counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists. While the patient waits to be seen by the physician, he/she completes the screener. Answers are confidential and only shared with the physician, who will discuss the patient’s results during the appointment and can help with next steps.

This routine screening is making a difference in identifying patients with behavioral health concerns. In a six-month primary care SmartScreener implementation, approximately half of the patients screened positive for a behavioral health concern. About 38 percent were deemed appropriate to be referred to digital cognitive behavioral therapy (DCBT). Fifty-four percent of these appropriate patients then enrolled in DCBT, getting help for which they may otherwise never have been referred.

The path to zero suicides requires that healthcare leaders—and the nation as a whole—treat suicide as a public health crisis and that we normalize discussions about mental health, suicide and treatment. I hope everyone who attended our Boise conference left as inspired about the urgency of this issue as I did. Let’s all commit to strategies that involve our communities in suicide prevention and draw upon multiple resources for continuing education and improved access to treatment.

 For more information about suicide prevention, read our other blog articles here.

When Magellan Health received word that it had been named a Fortune 500 company for the first time in our company’s history, it was cause not only for great celebration, but also reflection.

In recent years, we’ve experienced tremendous growth and momentum. Our purpose—“Leading humanity to healthy, vibrant lives”—fuels the work of our more than 10,000 associates, who are dedicated each day to making a meaningful difference in members’ health and their lives. One of our biggest growth drivers has been our ability to innovate and introduce new products that resonate and disrupt the industry across all areas of healthcare and pharmaceutical management, with the ultimate goal of delivering a consumer-centric model that improves health and health outcomes.

At Magellan, our model of care is unique in that it is both high-touch and high-tech, supported by an innovative and inclusive culture. Three keys to our success stand out.

When it comes to innovation, Magellan’s secret sauce is its culture. We continually seek people from outside the healthcare industry to challenge the status quo and help drive innovation around access to care and care quality with their unique perspectives. By providing our associates the space, flexibility and resources to experiment, we encourage creativity and offer the freedom to pursue ideas that push traditional boundaries. We put a great deal of trust in our talented colleagues instead of relying on a structure that in and of itself is defeatist for innovation.

We innovate with the member in mind. At Magellan, we’re dedicated to consumer-centric care that achieves improved outcomes by integrating healthcare across physical, behavioral and pharmaceutical services. By pioneering new strategies, we’ve been able to tackle the highest-trend components of healthcare expenditures using agile, clinically based technology and applying advanced analytics to develop next-generation solutions. This approach not only enables highly personalized services to be delivered, but also supports the best possible outcomes in the most cost-effective way for our members.

For example, roughly half of total pharmacy spend is driven by specialty drugs, with half of that specialty spend covered under medical benefits. This portion of specialty spend is typically unmanaged by pharmacy benefit managers and health plans. Magellan has differentiated itself in the specialty drug management space by pioneering innovative strategies focused on improved outcomes and value. We provide high-touch decision support tools that support specialty physicians in ordering complicated drug regimens. These tools help to ensure treatments are being administered at the most clinically appropriate site of service and are appropriately used.

We pursue atypical collaborations. Transforming healthcare requires unique collaborations to fuel new solutions that achieve disruptive change and improve health. A majority of our unique collaborations are in the digital therapeutics space. Two years ago, we partnered with Click Therapeutics to create FDA-approved therapeutic apps for treating common behavioral health conditions such as insomnia, anxiety and depression. One example is an app called ComfortAble^TM, which helps people suffering from chronic pain identify and change unhelpful thinking and behavior and learn new problem-solving techniques. At a time when our nation faces an opioid epidemic, much of which stems from difficulties in managing pain, ComfortAble^TM presents an opportunity to curb the use of pharmaceuticals in pain management.

An Eye Toward Tomorrow’s Healthcare Model

As Magellan has migrated to a culture of innovation, one of our biggest learnings is the need to innovate with a small “i.” We’ve learned over time that the best ideas aren’t always going to be big, bold-stroke, billion-dollar ideas. Ultimately, we’re innovating to help people live better, healthier and more vibrant lives. That’s a purpose all of our associates, from our senior leaders to our interns, not only embrace, but act upon.

At Magellan, all of our initiatives are centered on one objective: to provide highly personalized services that support the best possible outcomes in the most cost-effective way for our members. We will continue to innovate and introduce products that resonate, disrupt the industry and make a meaningful difference in people’s lives.

We’ve all been impacted by the horrific flooding taking place in Texas due to Hurricane Harvey, and witnessed the many instances of heroism and community support in response to this tragedy. In addition to the widespread damage occurring, we have a number of Magellan team members and their families who live in impacted areas and who are witnessing the devastation first-hand. Unfortunately, some are without power, and others have been displaced from their homes.

Leading humanity to healthy, vibrant lives is what we do on a daily basis on behalf of our members, so it’s no surprise that so many of us want to do something to help. I’m proud of what we as a company are doing to support our Texas-based customers, members and affected communities:

• Supporting the Houston Community: The State of Texas, specifically the Houston area, will be living with catastrophic damage for some time and rebuilding from this damage for even longer. The Magellan Cares Foundation is supporting these clean-up efforts with a contribution of $25,000 to the Houston Relief Fund, which is the organization that has been established by the mayor. This contribution will help local efforts to assist those in need.
• Utilizing Our Expertise: When we looked at the forecast for Hurricane Harvey, we opened our 24-hour crisis line early Friday morning for all Texans affected by the storm, whether they are our members or not. Free, confidential counseling services and other resources, such as referrals to local non-profit organizations, shelters and additional community-based support are available to assist Texans as they work to cope with this natural disaster. This line will remain open in the coming weeks and months as the community begins to assess damages and the full impact of the storm.
• Customer/Member Impact: We continue to serve our Texas-based customers, members and others who have been impacted by the storm. Some have likely spent time in shelters, others have lost power, and still others are facing challenges of which we are probably not aware. I’ve asked all of our associates to think about their situation and consider additional ways in which we can best serve them.

No one ever expects to be challenged with a catastrophic event, but I’ve been so proud of the way in which our team has sprung to action to help those in need in Houston.

I shared this message with all 10,000 associates at Magellan yesterday. As I said in my message, times like these require all of us not to be silent, but instead to stand tall and make it very clear that we are committed to an environment where all people can progress personally and professionally, and work in a positive, uplifting workplace. Given the current state of events in our country, and particularly the divisive events of this week, I felt it important to reaffirm the values we hold dear within Magellan.

“Leading humanity to healthy, vibrant lives” is what guides our decision making and inspires us to accomplish meaningful, positive change in the lives of those we serve. This can only be done if we respect and value each other, and every person we serve, without condition or qualification.

For the many years I have been associated with Magellan, I have been impressed by the integrity and commitment of Magellan team members to create a culture of caring. I have seen great respect for people of all races, religions, gender and sexual orientation, to name only a few of the things that make us different. There is no doubt that the diversity of our people allows us to better understand and execute our vision of making a powerful impact on the world around us.

I want to reaffirm in a direct and simple way that we will never diverge from valuing differences, and creating a culture in which we can learn from each other and grow as individuals, teams, and a company.

Times like these require all of us not to be silent, but instead to stand tall and make it very clear that we are committed to an environment where all people can progress personally and professionally, and work in a positive, uplifting workplace. Our differences are to be celebrated; they are absolutely key in helping us in “leading humanity to healthy, vibrant lives.”

Thank you for the great work you do. I am proud to be associated with you.

Magellan Health marked September as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, with Barry M. Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of Magellan Health, and Sam Srivastava, chief executive officer of Magellan Healthcare, releasing the following statement:

“Suicide produces a ripple effect through communities of friends, family, loved ones and co-workers, and its effects are devastating. There are people in our own communities, too, who have attempted suicide and may be coping with the after-effects of their decision, both physically and emotionally.

“Magellan Health has long believed that suicide should be a ‘never’ event, and that even one suicide is one too many.

“Consider these facts:
• Every 13 minutes, someone dies from suicide in the United States.
• Suicide is the second leading cause of death in the military, with roughly 20 veterans each day committing suicide.
• For each suicide, six other people are directly impacted.
• Ninety percent of individuals who die by suicide have experienced mental illness.

“During Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and always, we each have an obligation to extend a hand to individuals at risk, as well as to their families, and the five million survivors of suicide living among us.

“If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).”