Magellan Health today announced the launch of a new thought leadership website, www.MagellanHealthResources.com.

With a curated assortment of materials, focused around individual topics, Magellan Health Resources was designed as a repository of research, information and materials for healthcare professionals, members of the media and researchers.

To launch, Magellan Health Resources is showcasing information and materials around the opioid crisis.

The site includes videos  webinars, downloadable white papers, research, a news archive and more.

You can take a look here

By Carol Sickler, Screen Liaison Supervisor, TMG by Magellan Health

April is National Donate Life Month, and in honor of this, we would like to share a story from Carol Sickler, a TMG by Magellan Health Screen Liaison Supervisor. Fourteen years ago, Carol gave a life-saving gift to her brother, and she’s proud to be a living organ donor. Here is Carol’s story.

On March 18, 2004, I donated my kidney to my brother Lee. He had been in kidney failure for a year due to Berger’s disease (also known as IgA nephropathy) and was on dialysis. Berger’s disease causes the kidneys to become inflamed, which can affect how the kidneys filter waste from the blood. Since only 50 percent of people on dialysis live beyond 5 years, Lee’s best bet for long-term survival was to find a new kidney. I wanted to give Lee a fighting chance.

Our dad had also been on dialysis due to what we believed was Berger’s disease (it was never confirmed because he had other health issues, too). Unfortunately, our father was not a candidate for a transplant, and passed away in 2002 at the age of 72. My brother Steve also has Berger’s disease, but fortunately he has not experienced kidney failure (not everyone with Berger’s does).

Lee and Carol Sickler

Since this disease is hereditary, you might be wondering why I decided to donate one of my kidneys – wasn’t I at risk of Berger’s disease, too? Thankfully for me, Berger’s is primarily a disease found in males. It also tends to show up by the time a person is 40, and I was 40 at the time. So, for me, the risk of developing Berger’s disease was relatively low.

When I first considered donating my kidney, there were so many questions that were going through my mind about both of our futures, and if this was the right choice for us. However, my decision was solidified when the doctors at UW Hospital in Madison told us I was a match for Lee. And not just a match, but an identical match, with all six antigens matching as if we were identical twins, even though Lee is seven years younger than me. The doctors were baffled by this and had never experienced anything like this before. For me, though, I knew then that it was part of my life’s path to move forward and give my kidney to my brother. So, fourteen years ago we hugged and went into surgery together, becoming connected in a way we had never before imagined.

Today, we are both fully recovered and doing well. I personally have no regrets, and no health issues or ill effects from the donation. What I do have is an amazing bond with my baby brother Lee – the depth of this bond is unexplainable, and it’s something I would gladly give my kidney for again if I had to. Because organ donations are treatments and not cures, the kidney donation didn’t cure Lee of Berger’s disease, but it has allowed him to live a fulfilling, healthier life off of dialysis. Also, this gift of life allowed him to have a daughter, Jazmyn Carol, for which our entire family is grateful.

For anyone who is interested in becoming a living donor, there are a lot of great resources at both the www.organdonor.gov and at the University of Wisconsin Living Kidney Donor page. One of the most important things to know is that as long as the donor is evaluated thoroughly and cleared for donation, they will most likely lead a normal life after the surgery. And should a health condition arise because of the donation, there is a priority system in place on the National Transplant Waiting List so that living donors move to the top of that list.

I’m grateful that I had the chance to give my kidney to my brother, and love sharing my story in hopes it will inspire others to give the gift of life.

Traumatic events, such as a sudden death, natural disaster, motor vehicle accident, or terrorist attack can leave children and teens feeling stressed, frightened, and helpless. Whether they personally witness the event or are exposed to it on the news or social media, children may experience intense emotions and a heightened sense of insecurity. Children’s reactions to a traumatic event depend on their age and personality, the severity of the event, the availability of support, and previous experience of trauma

Tips for all ages

Traumatic events can disrupt children’s sense of safety and result in fears and worries, nightmares, and physical reactions such as headaches, stomachaches, problems sleeping, and loss of appetite. Here are suggestions to help children through the emotional and physical challenges they may face after trauma:

• Be aware of your own reactions to the event and manage your own stress. Stay calm and offer hugs and reassurance to help restore your child’s sense of safety and security.
• Share information about the event and answer your child’s questions honestly. Listen to your child’s fears and let him/her know it is okay to share his/her feelings at any time.
• Limit or prevent exposure to disturbing news and social media coverage of the event. Children who see graphic images or hear distressing news stories may become re-traumatized.
• Maintain stable routines as much as possible, including regular mealtimes, bedtimes, and exercise.
• Engage in fun activities to help children relax and feel that life is returning to normal.
• Watch for signs of trauma, even after weeks have passed. Children cope with trauma in different ways, and some may show signs of sadness, anxiety, and troubling behavior weeks or months after the event.

Tips by age group

Preschool age

After a traumatic event, children who are age five and under may display behavior from an earlier stage of their lives, such as bedwetting, thumb-sucking, clinginess to parents, and fearfulness of strangers. They may have tantrums or cry more than usual, or become withdrawn from others. Parents and other adults can help children by providing comfort and reassurance, maintaining routines as much as possible, encouraging them to express their feelings, and giving simple explanations to children’s questions about the event. Children look to their parents for cues as to how to feel and react, and will pick up on a parent’s distress or anxiety. It is best not to expose young children to the news on TV or the radio about the traumatic event. Involving toddlers and preschoolers in fun activities and playtime with others will provide a healthy distraction.

Early childhood

Children ages 6 to 11 may show some of the same reactions that younger children have, such as reverting to more childish behaviors. They may have nightmares or trouble sleeping, find it difficult to concentrate in school, become irritable, anxious or disruptive, or lose interest in family, friends, and fun activities. Parents should reassure children that they are safe and will be taken care of no matter what. Encourage family discussion about the event and answer questions, but be careful about exposing children to news and TV footage. Keep bedtime and meal routines as normal as possible, and involve children in activities that keep them busy. Identify the positives such as community recovery activities and the ways people help each other get through difficult times.

Adolescence

Older children ages 12 – 17 may have stress reactions such as nightmares and flashbacks of the event, lose interest in school, hobbies, and friends, feel angry, guilty, or depressed, withdraw from others, have physical symptoms such as headaches, or abuse alcohol or other drugs. As with younger children, parents can help teens rebuild a sense of trust and safety by listening to their concerns without judgment and providing them with peer support opportunities. Age-appropriate volunteer activities can help teens feel useful and productive.

When to get help

Be aware of signs that a child may need extra help coping with the trauma. If six weeks or more have passed since the traumatic event and your child is not feeling better, has trouble functioning at school or at home, is withdrawn from friends and family, or continues to have physical complaints such as headaches, stomach pains, and problems sleeping or eating, contact a mental health professional.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Star Rating program is designed to measure and improve the overall performance and quality of care health plans provide to

Medicare beneficiaries.  Due to changes in individual measure specifications, benchmarks, and inclusion into the overall calculation, this quality rating system continues to evolve – which can make it challenging to achieve and maintain 5-Star performance.

Listen to our latest webinar to learn about clinical strategies that can help you stay ahead of the curve for various Part C and D clinical measures such as rheumatoid arthritis management, osteoporosis management, statins in diabetes, and medication adherence for diabetes, hypertension (renin-angiotensin system antagonists), and cholesterol (statins).

March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month. Today, people with developmental disabilities are more visible across our communities than ever before, and the world is more accessible than it’s been in the past. It’s good to see things are becoming more inclusive, and it’s important for us to continue in this direction. Including people with disabilities into our communities enriches society as a whole – people of all abilities have gifts to offer, and when we find ways to let people share their gifts with others, we all benefit.

One way people can share their talents and become more included in their communities is through employment. Having paid employment gives people a sense of pride, and indicates that the work being done is valued by the employer. It also is a vital component of how people remain independent – when you’re making money, you have purchasing power over the clothes you buy, the food you eat and the home you choose to live in. You don’t have to rely on others to buy all of your necessities for you. It allows you to live a self-determined life where you call your own shots. Unfortunately for many people with disabilities, it can be a challenge to find paid employment. According to a survey of 17,682 adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities conducted by National Core Indicators, only 19 percent of those surveyed had a paid community job, but an additional 47 percent wanted one. These numbers are disheartening, and it’s up to us to start bridging the gap.

One of the roadblocks some people with disabilities run into is figuring out ways to earn money using their gifts and talents. Many will embrace their entrepreneurial spirit and create micro-enterprises: small scale business where they sell things they create, such as jewelry, art, crafts, greeting cards, homemade jams or provide services to those in their community. The possibilities are only limited to their imaginations! Others look to be a part of the traditional workforce, and thanks to programs like Project SEARCH – a national organization that partners with local business and teaches young adults with disabilities the skills they need to get the work they desire – more and more people with disabilities are finding jobs across all kinds of industries. According to the Wisconsin Project SEARCH Expansion, Project SEARCH, which is focused mainly on supporting young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, has a national employment success rate of 73 percent.

Melissa Rademacher

Melissa Rademacher, a young woman from central Wisconsin, is one of the many Project SEARCH success stories. Melissa is also enrolled in TMG by Magellan Health’s Wisconsin self-directed long term supports and services (LTSS) program called IRIS. After the restaurant Melissa was working for unexpectedly closed, Melissa turned to Project SEARCH in 2015, where she received her job training at the Kalahari Resort, a large waterpark, conference center and resort in Wisconsin Dells, which has been dubbed the “waterpark capital of the world.” There, she trained in housekeeping and in the bakery, as well as at the spa, which proved to be a fantastic fit. She was offered a job at the spa, and she’s been a spa attendant there ever since. Melissa’s work includes greeting guests and taking them to the relaxation room, stocking shelves, changing out the spa robes and putting guest information into the computer. Since starting at the spa, not only is Melissa in her dream job, but she’s a valued employee and has made wonderful friends at work.

Melissa’s story is a great example of what can happen when we set people up to succeed on the job. In fact, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was so impressed with Melissa’s story that he shared it during his State of the State address this past January.

Another key component to helping people with developmental disabilities find meaningful work is embracing the Employment First movement, which believes that everybody can work and that there is a job for everyone. Most states have some type of effort focused on the Employment First philosophy, and an increasing number of states have an official state policy, through legislation or executive order, indicating that employment in the community is the first and preferred option for people with disabilities. Wisconsin is part of this growing trend of state activity. Here, Employment First legislation, which Magellan Health supports, is expected to be signed into law soon. By getting laws like this in place, we’re building a culture that recognizes the value that people with disabilities bring to the workplace, in turn opening up more doors for employment for all.

These changes aren’t going to happen overnight, but if we continue making strides for inclusive work environments, it’s only a matter of time when they become the norm, and not the exception. And when that happens, everybody wins. Because everyone has something to offer, and anyone who wants to work should have the opportunity to do so.

To find out more about employing people with disabilities and what your state is doing to support Employment First, please go to these websites:

Department of Labor: Employment First Policy Resources

APSE: Employment First, Employment for All

More than 70 healthcare thought leaders, providers, and other innovators gathered in Florida in late January to explore the profound impact that new disruptors are having on healthcare delivery models, financing approaches and outcomes.  For the third year in a row, Magellan Health’s ‘Magellan Open Vision Exchange’ (MOVE) innovation forum brought together executives, providers and analysts to collectively discuss how industry innovators can solve some of healthcare’s biggest challenges.

Over the course of three days of dynamic interaction on Amelia Island, the group participated in presentations and discussions from a wide range of experts – including a Pulitzer Prize-winning practicing oncologist, CEOs of several large public and commercial healthcare programs, futurists, entrepreneurs, and innovation change gurus.

The speakers at MOVE 2018 brought very different perspectives, but the messages they delivered hit remarkably consistent notes.  Healthcare is being transformed through ever accelerating advances in technology, leveraging the power of big data, and producing personalized health solutions that are radically changing the way disease is predicted, identified, treated and contained.  As more than one expert noted, many of us do not even realize that ‘deep learning’ – as population-based meta-data analysis is known – has already made its way into our homes, and indeed into our pockets.  Sam Srivastava, CEO of Magellan Healthcare, reminded us all that the humble Smartphone has much more computing power than the early super-computers.  Pulitzer Prize-winner Siddhartha Mukherjee explained how researchers are using voice data passively recorded on Amazon’s Alexa™ to identify early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.  And, as eminent futurist Jim Carroll noted: “Connected health homes are the new normal.”

How do these profound changes impact the healthcare delivery system? Or as one audience member mused:  “In a world where computers make most of the clinical decisions, what becomes of the traditional provider?”  The answer was encouraging.  Several panelists felt that when machines take over routine diagnostics and health maintenance, the doctor-patient relationship will actually be enhanced, as primary care providers will have more time to actively listen to their patients, and more flexibility to address the non-clinical determinants of health that positively impact healthcare outcomes.

In the short term, providers are preparing for a transformed healthcare landscape by investing time and resources in creative partnerships with health plans and health informatics leaders in an effort to re-define and augment their value proposition.  Leaders from Magellan’s healthcare and pharmacy divisions joined with GuideWell of Florida in a panel discussion that explored the ‘volume to value’ shift in Value Based Purchasing (VBP).  Participants suggested that, while finding the optimal value-based model has been elusive, some promising pilot programs are emerging.  Aligning provider and payer incentives remained a challenge, the group agreed, and even the best-designed VBP program will fail if it does not drive member accountability.  Dr. René Lerer, president of GuideWell, captured this sentiment perfectly when he said that an effective health solutions company no longer delivers managed care – but instead ‘delivers a managed life to each and every member.’

In other words, the key to good personalized medicine will always be the person at the center of the healthcare journey.  Tommy Duncan, CEO of Trusted Health Plan, revisited this theme forcefully when describing how his inner city D.C. health plan was able to achieve a remarkable operations and financial turnaround in only one year.  The secret, Tommy explained, was that Trusted pivoted its existing care management model completely to focus on high-touch, face-to-face interactions at brick-and-mortar ‘Wellness Centers’ staffed by interdisciplinary teams.  Using predictive modeling data as a starting point to identify high-risk, high-cost members, the Wellness Center model generated behavior change at the individual member level that resulted in a 60 percent drop in emergency room visits in only one year.  Erhardt Preitauer, CEO of Horizon Health New Jersey, delivered a similar message, and ended his discussion of long term care best practices with the comment, “It all comes down to personal engagement.”

MOVE 2018 came full circle with closing comments delivered by Barry Smith, CEO of Magellan Health.  Many presenters talked at length about vast cloud-based, technology-enabled data repositories. Barry brought the discussion back down from the data cloud to an intensely human level, when he told the story of how a group of 80 compassionate strangers formed a human chain to save a family in distress on a Florida beach not too far from the room where MOVE attendees were sitting.  The group of strangers bonded spontaneously around a common goal, unanimously determined not to fail, and focused single-mindedly on ensuring not a single member of the stranded family drowned.  As a vivid metaphor for MOVE 2018, Barry’s story moved everyone who heard it.  It was also a perfect reflection of Magellan’s purpose:  “leading humanity to healthy, vibrant lives.”

 National Eating Disorder Awareness Week is observed annually on the last week of February , to mark the occasion, we are sharing some important Dos and Don’ts for families and friends of people suffering from an eating disorder.

Eating disorders can be among the most difficult afflictions for family members and friends to understand. Feelings of frustration and helplessness are common. Early diagnosis and treatment can save the life of a person with an eating disorder, but it is important to remember that only an experienced doctor or therapist can treat them effectively.

If the person has lost a significant amount of his or her normal body weight, or you feel that his or her life is in danger, seek immediate medical attention. The following are some additional tips if someone you know is suffering from an eating disorder.

Eating Disorder Dos . . .

• Educate yourself. Read as much as possible about eating disorders. This will help you understand the problem and put you in a better position to help those around you.
• Listen. People with eating disorders often feel ashamed and alone. Your support may provide the strength the person needs to seek professional help.
• Encourage the person to get help. Try to get the person to seek professional help, but don’t be too forceful. This will make the person more anxious, and could discourage the person from seeking help. Unless in immediate danger, avoid forcing the person to get help.

Eating Disorder Don’ts . . .

• Nag about eating or not eating. People with eating disorders are extremely self-conscious about their eating habits. By nagging, you will just make them more uncomfortable and reinforce the behavior.
• Hide food to keep the person from binge eating. Although people with bulimia or binge eating disorder may ask for your help, hiding food from them will only create resentment.
• Force the person to eat. Forcing the person to eat will make him or her feel childish, out-of-control, disapproved of, and scolded. Once again, this just reinforces the behavior.

Help is available

An eating disorder is an illness that is difficult to understand. Identifying and treating these disorders can also be hard. But the sooner a person is diagnosed, the better the chances are for recovery. While you can’t force someone to seek help, you can educate yourself and develop a support system for those around you who may be at risk. The good news is that most people do well in treatment and can recover from eating disorders.

Note: This article originally appeared on LinkedIn, you can read it there by clicking here.

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today – Abraham Lincoln

On one of my many cross-country flights, I started to think about how the concept of employment has changed dramatically over the course of my thirty-year career in the US. In this time, information technology and globalization have changed how business is done, increased competition and improved workforce productivity in every industry. These forces have dramatically changed the employer-employee compact*, doing away with stable jobs, lifetime employment, pensions, and predictable career advancement. These have been replaced by a dynamic, ever changing, ever evolving workplace. It’s not a stretch to say the Future of Work is very different, it is emerging and changing right in front of our eyes, and it requires:

• New skills: Students going through school will very likely be in a job that hasn’t been invented yet and more than a third of the job skills that will be needed in 2020 are not considered crucial to the jobs of today
• Curiosity and Continuous learning: These same students are learning core curriculum content that will be out of date by the time they graduate. They need to develop the capabilities to make learning a life-long activity that they enjoy
• Resiliency and Adaptability: Provide the skills required to adapt to careers that have 10-12 job changes in their career and possibly change their career 3 or 4 times, and
• New models of employment: Many individuals with specialized skills will see their career as a series of “Tours of duty”, with a newly defined Employer-Employee compact*. Other employees will expect the flexibility to have more than one gig at the same time enabled by the Gig Economy.

The Workforce of the future is made up of tech savvy digital natives who are always on and always connected. They flow between work activities, personal tasks and gigs that fulfill their need for artistic, financial, security or other needs. These employees are highly adaptable continuous learners, who have a breadth of skills across multiple domains. Organizations need to have a different view of their workforce and talent. They need to plan for employees who:

• Seek a higher purpose and “meaning” to the work they do and balancing that with what they are good at and at the same time enjoying what they do (The Japanese call the “ikigai”)
• Want to pursue multiple jobs/roles/gigs that align with their values and needs
• Prefer to work from anywhere, at anytime through different modalities – work from home, co-working spaces, all-inclusive campuses or traditional workplaces
• Look for the work to come to them as opposed to moving their families to where the work is and spending several unproductive hours commuting in big cities. The nature of work today is increasingly digital, distributed and not constrained by geographical boundaries, it goes to where the skills are
• See work and life as two sides of the same coin. These employees go beyond traditional notions of work-life balance and embrace work-life flow where they work where they want and can handle their personal life when they need to.

At Magellan Health, we believe that communication, collaboration and community are core basic human needs. We believe that collaboration is a highly personal and uniquely human experience that is critical for us to achieve our Massive Transformative Purpose (MTP) of “Leading humanity to healthy, vibrant lives”. Our challenge was to see how we could build a collaboration platform that took advantage of the strengths of this workforce and addressed some of the opportunities and constraints that come with the workforce of the future.

In late 2016, we introduced Magellan Hub, our platform to enable the workforce of the future and make them thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Magellan Hub was designed with five foundational principles:

1. It had to be humanized, personal and democratic – the platform needed to be personal in a way that it gave every individual within the organization a unique voice that was their own. It also needed to be representative, self-governing and participatory (collaboration is not a spectator sport). It also should NOT allow for anonymous participation.
2. It had to support emerging modalities of communication – the platform had to go beyond Web 2.0 technologies to include emerging modes of communication including Groups/Communities, Videos, Group Chats, Video and Audio Conferencing, desktop NLP, and Chatbots
3. It had to bridge distance and time – In other words, it had to retain the context of conversations, the history of events and be searchable. In addition, it had to have the flexibility to support real-time and delayed interactions at the same time
4. It had to be everywhere and nowhere – this allowed people to be always connected when they needed to be and completely disconnected when they wanted to be. This enables both pull and push communications where users could opt-in to the content they wanted to see.
5. It had to be future proof – The platform had to be scalable to support our growth and be accessible from anywhere, at any time over no, low and high-bandwidth connections.

We believe in Magellan Hub, we built a platform that supports the workforce of the future to effectively handle the future of work. Here are a four examples:

• When Dana, a new employee joins Magellan, she is instantly connected to the broader community across Magellan. She has the choice to share what she wants to share, develop her unique voice and influence the dialog of her colleagues, her team or the entire company. She can subscribe to the content she wants to see, groups she wants to join, formal and informal leaders she wants to follow. In other words, Dana immediately becomes part of the Magellan Community the minute she gets an ID to access Magellan Hub
• Steve, a long-term Magellan employee, spends most of his time in infrastructure operations and is focused on his day-to-day tactical tasks. With Magellan Hub, Steve can be part of groups that are focused on the projects he is working on to stay in sync with the rest of his team irrespective of where they reside or work from. He can also join special interest groups around technical domains or social domains (such as Magellan Musicians) to connect with others with similar interests. He does all this on his Android smartphone as he is running personal errands working out of his home office.
• Lara, a highly engaged mid-level executive uses Magellan Hub to do a digital management by walking around to check on the pulse of her team that is spread across 12 states and 3 different time zones. She uses HD Videoconferencing and personal chat/video/audio conferencing through to enable these highly personal and humanized experiences without extensive travel. What’s cool is that Lara can have these humanized, high-touch interactions with her team from her home-office, from the indoor gym as she watches her kids play or from an airport as she waits for her flight to take off
• Jeff, who is a product manager developing our next leading edge Cognitive Behavioral Therapy tool can collaborate real-time with his colleagues and team members from different departments across the company to create, edit, comment on shared product specifications in a secure way. At the same time, he uses a closed and private group to discuss and collaborate on these product specifications and coordinate the development of this product across the company.

At Magellan, we are the employer of the future who is fully committed to continuously exceeding the expectations of the workforce of the future. While we may not be there yet, with Magellan Hub, we provide a collaboration platform for employees so that they can do their best work every single day and they become the change that we want to see.

References and Notes:

* Hoffman, R., Casnocha, B., & Yeh, C. (2013, June). Tours of Duty: The New Employer-Employee Compact. Harvard Business Review.

** World Economic Forum. (January 2016). The future of jobs: Employment, skills and workforce strategy for the fourth industrial revolution. http://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs

*** The name Magellan Hub was selected by our employees through a crowd-sourcing contest that was conducted on the platform