Separating Fact from Fiction

While he knew a company can’t validate its own outcomes, many providers were (and still are) hiring actuaries to do just that. So, Sean turned to industry guru Al Lewis. Al, a best-selling author of two books on falsifying outcomes in the health care services industry, had recently exposed a high-visibility scheme by North Carolina’s (subsequently terminated) Medicaid contractor to fabricate massive savings, and was also the first to expose widespread outcomes measurement fraud in the wellness industry.

Together, Sean and Al formed Validation Institute with the mission of bringing truth and clarity to the health care benefits industry. The idea was to confer unbiased validations on qualified companies and certify individuals who could prove themselves capable of analyzing outcomes.

Their commitment to integrity often conflicted with bottom line goals, however, as many companies’ savings claims were rejected in order to maintain Validation Institute’s impeccable reputation. Among those declined, ironically, was Care Innovations itself, which could never produce outcomes worthy of validation. Al Lewis’s own company, Quizzify, was also initially denied validation (though subsequently awarded it).

 

Changing the Way Employers Purchase Benefits – from the Inside Out

In 2018, Care Innovations sold Validation Institute to Health Value Institute, chaired by Vidar Jorgensen, owner of the authoritative World Congress and Cambridge Innovation Institute healthcare conferences. Vidar appointed RD Whitney as CEO, and with RD at the helm, Validation Institute has disrupted the data-driven healthcare supply chain management process and marketplace. RD, an executive with a 30-year track record of creating professional communities that connect buyer and seller brought on Aimee O’Brien, a marketing executive with experience in an international certification, education, and membership organization, as CMO, and most recently, President Benny DiCecca, former CEO of Wellesley Information Services.

Under their leadership, Validation Institute is transforming the way employers purchase health care benefits by not only continuing to validate vendors, but by empowering and educating buyers themselves.

In 2019, Validation Institute launched the Certified Health Value Professional (CHVP) credential, a certification for healthcare benefits practitioners and benefits advisors to demonstrate expertise in health care purchasing. The certification requires professionals to complete training modules that educate them on how to identify and monitor high-value, high-impact programs, and determine whether vendor performance reports and claims are accurate in order to deliver the most value and cost-savings.

In addition, Validation Institute created the Health Value Awards to recognize the best companies in health care, added a searchable online vendor directory called eXchange to connect buyers and sellers, and in 2020 launched a national event, the National Health Care Benefits Summit.

 

A New Era for Employer Health Care Purchasing

As employers and employees continue to demand transparency, and vendors are held to increasingly higher standards, Validation Institute is leading the way. In a market saturated with brokers, advisors, and insurance companies who have been selling the same solutions for years and years and who benefits most from maintaining the status quo – they make more money when the rates go up – Validation Institute provides employers and their advisors with the first, completely independent, unbiased and trusted resource for buyers of healthcare benefit solutions.

Building upon Sean and Al’s vision of bringing truth and fairness to the health care benefits industry, Validation Institute has set the bar high with a mission of reducing the employer’s all-in healthcare spending by 30% or greater while improving employee health outcomes.

With an esteemed advisory board, key partnerships with the  Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) and other leading health care alliances, and the support of the health care organizations that have already been validated, Validation Institute is redefining health care purchasing by empowering employers and benefits advisors to be better buyers and holding vendors accountable for their outcomes and quality – now and in the future.