The American System for Advancing Senior Health™ (ASASH) is an innovative health care services company dedicated to improving health outcomes for America’s seniors. ASASH’s groundbreaking initiatives support not only seniors but also clinicians, MCOs, employers, advocates, government, and manufacturers. By delivering health management tools and information across integrated media—live, print and electronic—ASASH helps foster earlier disease awareness and management; improved compliance, adherence, and treatment to goal; and greater use of Clinical Practice Guidelines.

Why ASASH?

In the US, there are an estimated 66.5 million seniors (aged 55+) and 78 million baby boomers (aged 43 to 61)—many of whom are quickly becoming America’s “elder boomers”. Combined, these 2 groups make up 1/3 of the total US population. Those aged 65 and older already consume more than 40% of all prescriptions while only constituting 12% of the total population.

Today, this large and growing group is without a single reliable “go-to” source for senior-specific health information and services. Existing resources focus either on health care and diseases (but are not senior specific) or on senior-focused issues (but are not health care specific). Additionally, seniors and their caregivers lack specifically targeted health care information journals and conferences.

The dramatic increases projected for the senior population, coupled with their desire to live vital, healthier lives, are the driving forces behind the creation of ASASH—the American System for Advancing Senior Health™.

A Health Care System in Crisis
Increasing Patient Self-Responsibility and Self-Care >
Exploding Health Care Costs per Individual >
Lack of Specialized Caregivers >
Increase in Chronic Diseases and Complications >
Increase in Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) >
Convoluted Payment System >

For all of these reasons, the American System for Advancing Senior Health™ is dedicated to providing a value-based system to convene, coordinate, and empower diverse stakeholders in order to realize improved outcomes for America’s seniors.

Increasing Patient Self-Responsibility and Self-Care

As overall health care costs continue to rise and more of the responsibility of paying for care shifts to the consumer, individuals are increasingly taking responsibility for managing their own health care. Stated plainly, more and more people are taking the time to educate themselves about conditions that are of concern to them, chronic problems that they need to live with, or general health information. Of course, as personal responsibility increases, so too does the potential for consumer confusion. And no consumer population is at greater risk for confusion than individuals aged 55+.

According to recent findings from the first annual Senior Health Index by ASASH, an overwhelming majority of seniors desire a credible source for health care information specific to their age group. Today, those seeking to increase their knowledge of a senior disease state currently have to search for the information piecemeal, since a single, reliable source of senior information does not exist. This practice, which often requires an individual to labor to try and “connect the dots”, can lead to an incomplete understanding of a topic or, even worse, decisions based on misinformation or inadequate information.

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Exploding Health Care Costs per Individual

While many future effects of the baby boomer generation are still debatable, the impact of the cost of their health care is not. Because baby boomers are expected to live longer, healthier lives than any previous generation, the annual cost of caring for them is expected to climb by more than 75%—from approximately $3,500 to over $6,100 per person. A cost increase of this magnitude—across nearly one-quarter of the country’s population (78 million boomers)—will have a dramatic effect on the costs for health care stakeholders, including health insurance companies, employer groups, and pharmacy benefit management companies.

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Lack of Specialized Caregivers

Cost is not the only issue facing the health system. It is currently estimated that, at existing staffing levels, there will be an insufficient number of eldercare health specialists to treat these aging patients. Specialists in caring for the elderly, such as board-certified geriatricians, geriatric nurse practitioners, and gerontologists, are in woefully short supply to serve the needs of this growing population. Currently only 1 geriatrician exists for every 9000 seniors in the US today, and the problem is only worsening, with nearly 8000 additional Americans turning 60 every day.¹ As the bandwidth of specialized geriatricians is exceeded, the burden of care for these patients is expected to shift toward primary care providers who often lack professional training specifically related to the senior care market.
Read the Institute of Medicine’s April 2008 Report “Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce." Full Report (300 pages) >   Report Brief >

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Increase in Chronic Diseases and Complications

Many of these patients are expected to require even more care as they age. A significant proportion of the increasing senior population is expected to suffer from multiple chronic conditions (comorbidities), which require multiple prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, supplements, and other remedies. At present, there is no solution to help the eldercare/primary care provider base to cope with the increased patient load/treatment complications they face.

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Increase in Adverse Drug Events (ADEs)

Poor primary-care treatment—whether because of uninformed or misinformed professionals or a lack of treatment—and general patient confusion already result in a hospitalization rate for avoidable adverse drug events that is 3 times greater for seniors than for the nonsenior population. Among these hospitalizations, 17% are due to adverse drug reactions, while 11% are due to noncompliance. In the population 65 and older, there are 1.45 million adverse drug events (ADEs, also known as “adverse drug reactions” – ADRs) per year. It is estimated that 438,000 of those are preventable. It is believed that, of the total population, seniors account for 36% of all ADE-related hospital admissions.

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Convoluted Payment System

Even in a best-case scenario where patients receive proper care and follow their prescribed regimen, seniors still must navigate an incredibly complex and convoluted payment system. As the senior population grows, the system will face additional burdens and, consequently, additional costs. Direct stakeholders (like managed care organizations and Medicare/Medicaid) will face increased treatment costs, provider organizations will need to deal with taxed resources (which could result in unnecessary expansionary costs), and patients will need to cope with increased premiums.

For all of these reasons, the American System for Advancing Senior Health™ is dedicated to providing a value-based system to convene, coordinate, and empower diverse stakeholders in order to realize improved outcomes for America’s seniors.

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1. Source: US Census
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