Gavin Quinnies is the CEO and co-founder at US HealthCenter, Inc. Mr. Quinnies has collaborated with organizations to discover health and productivity-related possibilities for over 25 years. He first established health risk management systems at his manufacturing firm in the early ’90s, producing a return of 4:1, and subsequently brought his knowledge to other organizations such as IBM Life Sciences.
Since its inception in 2003, the US HealthCenter Inc’s team has focused on process and people to support the mission of industry-leading science, technology and advocacy to prevent and manage disease. Gavin says, “As such the quality and consistency of our TEAMates is of my utmost concern. We have had 100% employee retention since our founding, which has made the TEAM highly productive and our processes mature and ever-improving.” He further adds that this is uncommon in the post-2000 tech bubble for a self-funded health care startup. Because of this, the company has accomplished some feats such as three distinct third-party validations; for its predictive modeling, care navigation and population health management. The management expects another validation of the company’s cost predictive model later this year.
An Advanced Health Monitoring System
The PredictiMed™ health management system is comprised of a Personal Health Dashboard™ {PHD}, Health Coach Tracker, Corporate Health Profile, Health Counts™ engagement and rewards engine, Sweeper™ medical and pharmacy claims analytics tool, and the HealtheMall™ marketplace and content management system. The PHDTM is a dynamic and comprehensive user portal app utilizing a responsive design that provides a seamless, personalized user experience. The member’s past present and future health is represented using USHC’s predictive modeling. It incorporates an inclusive health profile and medical history chart with periodic and episodic medical information that can be accessed at anytime and anywhere. Being a safe, encrypted medical site, the PHDTM has a medical passport with personal, medical, and insurance information, as well as a comprehensive health and wellness management site.
From a technology standpoint, US HealthCenter harnesses a multi-pronged approach that aids the predictive model to identify the onset of a disease before symptoms by combining objective and subjective data. Data include DNA, family history, medical and pharmacy history, biometrics and blood chemistries, lifestyle, payroll and social factors. It then uses proprietary analytics to identify risk burden-potential and cost avoidance or exposure for each condition, ultimately providing savings opportunities per at-risk individual. In aggregate, risk managers can see where their risk burden is according to benchmarks financially. This what-if analysis can help visualize trends to further identify and improve the existing medical conditions for better health outcomes by helping healthcare organizations focus on proactive care management.
Early Learning of Hard Work and Dedication
Gavin shared that his parents were the single largest influencers in his life and career. He states that they not only taught him but showed him how to work hard and smart and if one does the right thing, right things will be done in return.
Gavin also refers to his college professors that taught him constraint theory through the book “The Goal” and pushed to make it through aerospace and packaging engineering coursework. “They took chances on me in running an entrepreneurial lab, one of the very first manufacturing university to industry technology transfer projects in the US,” says Gavin.
An Advanced Platform for Data Security
Gavin states that one of the biggest daily operational challenges is the inconsistency of data from disparate data sources. While this is not an uncommon problem in healthcare IT, few organizations are dealing with the breadth and volume of data.
At USHC, the TEAM is processing all of these data files from disparate sources on a perpetual basis, plus tracking and recording weightings to produce a score, or award credit to a member to monetize points or currency for a given user. The amount and velocity of data are staggering and complex.
Additionally, each client may custom build their organization’s platform creating a personalized PHDTM, thereby increasing the complexity. He mentions, “There are over 200 types of reasons for our 100,000 members or distributors to contact our help desk each day. Most of our members’ take-home pay, HSA/HRA, or other financial incentives are determined by how the member uses our platform. I’m proud of the fact that our help desk is not busy more than 4 hours per day.” It’s a testament to the quality and experience of the team.”
A Comprehensive Management Operation during Pandemic
The TEAM at USHC is very loyal to its mission and each other, and as such strives to work and collaborate. Though most of USHC’s employees live within commuting range of its home office, USHC has been virtual since 2007. TEAMates set their in-office hours according to client and project demand. Therefore, reacting to government forced shutdowns did not affect operations or quality of service in any way. Being in the predictive health field, USHC is on top of the data all the time, and was months ahead of most on the happenings and able to adjust accordingly.
Driven by Values and Work Culture
At USHC, management values its ability to work together as a TEAM, and refers to employees as TEAMates. TEAM stands for Together Everyone Achieves More, a common phrase Gavin used in his early days of quality system consulting. USHC is a process-driven organization that empowers people to continuously improve their work experience. The process drives the task and project completion, not some supervising body. All are accountable to the processes established and the TEAM governs adherence to the established processes. “We joke that it is our job to eliminate our job; meaning that we work to do something better tomorrow,” says Gavin. He further adds, “We shift workloads in a controlled regular manner to facilitate cross-training, TEAM building and job enrichment. We have a few key regular functionally driven TEAM meetings that keep everyone up to speed and ready to pitch in if needed.”
For Future; More Innovative Healthcare Offerings
US HealthCenter Inc. is on the cusp of launching some of the most unique and successful health plans in the US. The unique combination of risk prediction and risk management gives it a landmark approach. “As we continue to grow our offerings and our scope, we will continue our focus on building the best health plan offerings available,” says Gavin.
US HealthCenter Inc.’s evidenced-based science and PredictiMed™ technology suite, combined with its Wholeistic™ Care navigation, activates, educates, guides and incentivizes members to manage and improve their health. In February of 2015, the Institute validated PredictiMed’s™ ability to identify and lower the predisease high risk level reducing the incidence of ER visits and hospitalizations between 80 and 93%. USHC has carried that validation every year since then. At present, the company is pursuing having its financial predictive model third-party validated.
