While we tend to look for solutions to current healthcare woes in new technologies for treating illness, it is clear that the greatest innovations are needed in developing, implementing, and demonstrating the value of ways to promote healthier behaviors among consumers.

It has been known for decades, even centuries, that if people avoided risky behaviors and thereby reduced the incidence and prevalence of disease and injury, rather than waiting for the healthcare system to cure them after their unhealthy behaviors had led to severe and expensive acute and chronic conditions, we would avoid the vast majority of sickness care expense. But now, the forces necessary to shift investment into prevention in order to reduce sickness care costs are finally coalescing.

Payers of all kinds, from governments to commercial insurers to employers, consumers and even many providers are looking to make this shift, and many have done so already, with significant savings results. The innovations still needed are in the realm of cost-effective ways to change behaviors so that investments turn out well for payers, consumers and providers, alike, plus cost-effective ways to measure these results so that everyone knows how much they are gaining, and recognizes the worth of their investments.

While too many argue over whether or not wellness, risk reduction and disease management reduce sickness care costs enough to cover the costs of doing so, the broader impacts on employers, for example, have long been overlooked. When they are systematically examined, they usually include improvements in productivity and reductions in total labor costs that far exceed sickness cost reductions, and reflect far greater returns on investments.

The effects on the lives of individuals, families and society represent still another source of returns, and require similar innovations in measuring and reminding all of the cost savings they gain, but quality of life and health gains as well. Since individuals and families do most of the work in reducing health risks and managing existing conditions, they must appreciate the intrinsic rewards they can and do gain from their own investment of time and effort in order to justify and reinforce their contributions.

The technologies for measuring and making credible the total economic impact on payers, and the total life impact on consumers are being developed, but have not achieved anything close to widespread acceptance and application as yet. Until they do, the full potential of preventing, rather than paying the costs of treating all the world’s current illness will never be realized.