Partners for better health

Health care happens outside the doctor's office

For more than 20 years, HealthPartners has been setting ambitious five-year goals to improve the health and well-being of our members, patients and community. As a non-profit, integrated health care organization that provides both care and coverage, we have a unique opportunity to lead and drive improvement not just for each member or patient, but for big groups of people in our community.

These goals, known as Partners for Better Health Goals, are influenced by research by David Kindig, a professor of population health science at the University of Wisconsin. His studies show that a person’s health is determined more by lifestyle and social and economic factors than by the health care they receive. That’s why our goals extend beyond our health plan, clinics and hospitals and into areas outside the health care system.

What determines health

20 percent: Health care
40 percent: Social and economic factors such as income, education, employment
30 percent: Health habits such as tobacco and alcohol use, diet and exercise, and unsafe sex
10 percent: Environment including urban design, clean air and water

Sharing our progress

We made great progress in reaching our 2020 Partners for Better Health Goals, which were focused on our efforts to improve health and well-being, affordability and create the best experience possible. Success stories include:

Our HealthPartners and Park Nicollet clinics continued to receive top scores from Minnesota Community Measurement in areas such as breast cancer and colon cancer screenings, optimal diabetes care and pediatric immunizations.
We increased the use of low-dose, short-acting opioids for acute prescriptions from 56 percent in 2018 to 62 percent in 2020.
We reduced the number of hospital-acquired infections patients develop at our hospitals, seeing 71 percent improvement between 2015 and 2020 at Methodist Hospital and 73 percent improvement between 2015 and 2020 at Regions Hospital.
To help make health care more affordable, we look at our total cost of care to ensure our members and patients are receiving the best value.
HealthPartners Clinics have 11.6 percent lower total health care costs compared to other health systems in Minnesota, and Park Nicollet Clinics have 9.2 percent lower total health care costs.
Our HealthPartners health plan has 12 percent lower total health care costs compared to other plans in Minnesota and 6 percent lower total health care costs compared to other plans in our regions.
To ensure our members, patients and families view HealthPartners as a trusted partner, and to improve health for moms and babies, we focused on reducing disparities in recommended prenatal and postpartum care. We engaged in conversations with our members, patients and the community to understand what we might do to build trust, address bias, and provide a more welcoming environment for the people we serve from all backgrounds.

Many 2020 goals will carry over to our 2025 goals. These include reducing disparities, increasing preventive care, supporting healthy lifestyles, providing an exceptional experience and reducing the total cost of care.

Overview of 2025 Partners for Better Health Goals:

Make care and coverage simpler and more affordable for those we serve.
Improve health and eliminate health care disparities for women and children of color, because every child deserves a healthy beginning.
Ensure the care we provide delivers the value our patients expect by using patient reported outcomes to improve health outcomes and lower costs.
Improve the key drivers of health and well-being that happen outside the health care system by focusing on our partnerships in the community and inspiring collective action.
Measure our overall success and our progress to improve health and well-being for the population we serve using our new summary measure of health and well-being.

Our goals are deliberately set high. But our progress shows that they are the best road map to achieve our mission to improve health and well-being in partnership with our members, patients and community.