SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 31, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Castlight Health, Inc. (NYSE: CSLT), a leader in healthcare navigation, has published an updated analysis of medical spend savings across Castlight's book of business for 2020.

Castlight Logo (PRNewsfoto/Castlight Health)

COVID-19 had a significant impact on healthcare spend in 2020. As recently reported by the Milliman Medical Index (MMI), healthcare costs decreased year over year at a rate of 4.2% lower than the 2019 spend for all categories of healthcare costs, except prescription drugs. Primary findings of this study indicate that eliminated and deferred care more than offset the cost of COVID-19 testing and treatments. Shelter-in-place restrictions also forced lifestyle changes that may have contributed to less demand for acute care. Additionally, according to a JAMA Network Open study co-authored by Castlight on changes in health services use among commercially-insured populations in the US during COVID-19, digital health, telehealth, and mail-order pharmacy utilization increased as individuals accessed care in new ways.  

Castlight recently updated its annual medical spend analysis for 2020. Compared to non-users within Castlight customers' populations, users engaging with the Castlight platform across our book of business had lower total medical spend in 2020 as compared to 2019.

Methodology

This analysis was based on medical claims, demographics, clinical diagnoses, and product utilization of Castlight users from 48 included customers (2.5M eligible lives). To be included in this analysis, customers must have launched the Castlight application at least six months prior to the end of the measurement period, be an active customer, and have at least 2,500 members eligible for Castlight Care Guidance product features. All data and medical claims were anonymized and normalized across all customers.

As in prior years, Castlight performed a concurrent, risk-adjusted analysis to quantify the reduction in spend for users engaged with the Castlight platform.

DxCG Intelligence

The risk adjustment and predictive modeling software used in this analysis is DxCG Intelligence, powered by Cotiviti. DxCG Intelligence uses Cotiviti's predictive models to calculate a patient's individual health and financial risk. Aggregating the scores of individuals with key attributes generates group-level predictive results that can help answer critical questions about healthcare costs, utilization, and quality. DxCG enables comparisons across diverse member groups, and the models are used by government agencies, payers, provider groups, and academic researchers. Cotiviti has been honored to advance the science of risk scoring by working with the Society of Actuaries (SOA) over the past two decades. The DxCG model was a top performer in the most recent SOA independent review.

"We are excited to present these updated results validating the positive impact that Castlight has in reducing medical spend for our clients," said Tamar Rudnick, senior vice president of Marketing at Castlight Health. "Our valued partnership with Cotiviti, leveraging their DxCG Intelligence solution, has been critical to our ability to conduct this analysis in a robust and rigorous manner." 

"Cotiviti's partnership with Castlight validates the critical role of advanced data analytics in reducing unnecessary medical spend and encouraging wiser utilization," said Rachael Jones, senior vice president, analytics and quality of Cotiviti. "We congratulate Castlight for making a tangible impact in improving the sustainability of the healthcare system for all, including payers, providers, and consumers."

About Castlight Health

Castlight is on a mission to make it as easy as humanly possible for people to navigate the healthcare system and live happier, healthier, more productive lives. As a leader in healthcare navigation, we provide a world-class digital platform with a team of clinical and benefits experts to help members easily connect and engage with the right programs and care, at the right time. Castlight partners with Fortune 500 companies and health plans to transform employee and member benefits into one comprehensive health and wellbeing experience to deliver better health outcomes and maximize returns on healthcare investments.

For more information visit www.castlighthealth.com. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn and like us on Facebook.

About Cotiviti

Cotiviti is a leading solutions and analytics company that is reshaping the economics of healthcare, helping its clients uncover new opportunities to unlock value. Cotiviti's solutions are a critical foundation for healthcare payers in their mission to lower healthcare costs and improve quality through higher performing payment accuracy, quality improvement, risk adjustment, and network performance management programs. Cotiviti's healthcare solutions are powered by Caspian Clarity, a proprietary data and analytics platform spanning thousands of unique member and provider data types across financial and clinical domains, representing the most comprehensive longitudinal data set in healthcare. The company also supports the retail industry with data management and recovery audit services that improve business outcomes. For more information, visit www.cotiviti.com.

Media Contacts:

Caroline Kawashima
Director, Corporate Marketing
Castlight Health
press@castlighthealth.com

Kara McCrudden
Aria Marketing for Cotiviti
kmccrudden@ariamarketing.com
401) 474-3308

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SOURCE Castlight Health, Inc.