A number of innovative supply management solutions will be presented at the “AnyDay - Innovation Health” on October 11, 2012 in the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Stuttgart (see also p. 22). The aim is not to look at projects with “rose-colored glasses”, but rather to report specifically on successes and failures. Various focal points are highlighted in three forums in which experiences in measuring success (Forum I), best and worst practice in healthcare from different perspectives (Forum II) and innovative solutions (Forum III) are reported. MVF spoke to Winfried Baumgärtner, board member of mhplus BKK in Ludwigsburg, and Dr. Thorsten Pilgrim, spokesman for the management of AnyCare.

>> How difficult is it for innovative ideas to be implemented in supply management?
Pilgrim: The German healthcare system is in constant change with continuous adjustments to legislation. On the one hand, these changes can lead to the need to find impulses for new, innovative solutions. On the other hand, offering new supply solutions also creates a lot of uncertainty on the part of our clients. Where supply solutions were previously developed in isolation on paper, today innovative supply management solutions grow together with the customer and according to their needs. This gave us the opportunity to specifically adapt to customer requirements and develop innovative solutions in various areas. Today we are able to develop care programs in a relatively short period of time that focus on a very specific clinical picture, include different care components (media, telephony, telemonitoring, on-site care, etc.) or serve different customer segments.

What lever can politics use for innovations?
Baumgärtner: The market and competition play an essential role in the further development of the healthcare system. Competition has also made a difference in the GKV. Politics has made its contribution by allowing market conditions to exist by allowing insured persons to change their health insurance provider relatively easily. In addition, the first framework conditions for a selective contract and product policy were created. Their role should be to keep the tension between social welfare for the benefit of citizens and enabling innovative development well balanced. It makes its contribution by maintaining or further strengthening competitive conditions.

Why are the quality of ideas and innovation in the field of health no guarantee for rapid implementation in the reality of care?
Pilgrim: Our experience is that innovative care solutions are best transferred into reality the more the care program is aligned with the needs of the customer and the participants. At the same time, the acceptance of such a care program depends heavily on how it is communicated. A prevention program, for example, can be no matter how effective if the benefits and advantages for the participant are not properly highlighted. Ultimately, an innovative care program can only have an impact if the insured persons addressed take part in it. It is important that when developing innovative solutions you never lose sight of the goal, the insured person with all their needs and the customer with their expectations.

Where would you locate the barriers to innovation?
Baumgärtner: Financial compensation that does not reward further development, high supervisory requirements and hurdles, budget requirements and a lack of financial sovereignty on the part of the cost bearers can be a hindrance. The ban on health insurance companies operating their own businesses and the resulting inability to take responsibility for their own investments has an inhibiting effect.
Pilgrim: Our innovations usually arise from the specific needs of our customers. We are currently increasingly finding ourselves in the situation of having to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of our care programs - and this is rightly so. Because nothing is further from us than offering solutions that offer no added value - neither for the customer nor for the participant concerned. However, when it comes to measuring the success of innovative solutions, we come up against many limits. On the one hand, the data situation is not always the way we need it for an evaluation. On the other hand, our customers' requirements for the methods of measuring success are very different. In order to counteract this “brake on innovation”, we have founded a so-called development partnership with some statutory health insurance companies. The aim of this development partnership is to work with customers to develop a uniform standard for measuring the success of supply management programs. We would like to make a further contribution to reducing these barriers.

What are innovation accelerators?
Baumgärtner: Open and risk-taking employees, proximity to customers, competition and effective structures of those involved are conducive to innovation.
Pilgrim: For us, speaking, networking and being active in the market are the be-all and end-all in the development of innovations. We generate new ideas together with customers, accelerate them through product development that puts together standardized support modules individually and places solutions on the market in the shortest possible time. Innovation accelerators can also be short paths, pragmatic contractual solutions and trusting collaboration at a specialist level. For us, these are all important accelerators of innovative supply solutions.

Sham innovation, step innovation, leap innovation. Is the thesis true: Without “appearance, no step, no jump”?
Pilgrim: In the automotive industry, it is usually the case that innovative solutions are initially installed in the luxury segment and only years later become standard equipment in the middle class. It is similar in some areas of healthcare. However, a distinction is made here between whether services are included in the service catalog of statutory health insurance or whether they are offered on a self-pay basis.

Thanks for the conversation <<