Conversation #3 : Putting employee health at the heart of business strategy

We are living for longer, and we are working for longer. The widespread adoption of supplementary health insurance and new ways of working have given businesses a central role to play in their employees’ health insurance planning. Prevention and well-being in the workplace have become strategic priorities. CNP Assurances has recognised this, launching a new generation of services. We report on how our partner Icade uses the Lyfe online health and well-being platform and the H4D telemedicine booth, supported under the Open CNP programme for innovative start-ups.

Conversation between Corinne Lemoine, Marie Michel and Thomas Saint-Peron

Corinne Lemoine,
Head of HR at Icade, Paris

Icade, an integrated property company, sets great store by its employees’ quality of life in the workplace and by the well-being of its tenants. It is the first business in Europe to have given its employees access to a teleconsulting booth as part of a pilot trial.

Marie Michel,
Icade employee in Paris

She tested out Lyfe’s first service – arranging express medical appointments – and is now interested in health coaching.

Thomas Saint-Peron,
Head of digital marketing for Lyfe at CNP Assurances. Paris

He is involved in the development of the Lyfe platform and exploring the challenges in this new approach to healthcare – building a social protection ecosystem, establishing its business model and keeping data confidential.

First in Europe

Following a call for innovations issued to start-ups, Icade decided to trial a teleconsulting booth at its headquarters. Employees can have free individual check-ups and have a doctor’s appointment via a video link. Icade also provides its employees with access to Lyfe’s service platform and to the well-being coaching digital application.

The Lyfe platform offers accredited online health services including the arrangement of medical appointments for employees, their parents or their children, a round-the-clock chat service with doctors who respond within an hour, and a telephone assistance service providing help. This innovative service offering intended for members of mutual and personal risk insurers and employees of CNP Assurances’ business partners complements its health and personal risk insurance products and its assistance services. Together, this helps to add substance to a new blueprint for the personal insurer, which supports everyone on a daily basis throughout their life, whether they are at home, in hospital or at work.

Corinne Lemoine,
Icade’s HR department 

In the past ten years, Icade’s employees have seen a great deal of changes and, with the backing of the Caisse des Dépôts’ strategy, the Group has invested in quality of life in the workplace for several years now.As part of an innovation programme focused on the property of the future, the idea of a health service within the business took shape.A project group designed a user pathway combining health conferences with access to a medical teleconsulting booth. This project was developed together with the CHSCT health, safety and working conditions committee, the occupational doctor and all the social partners. Initially, it raised all sorts of questions about the confidentiality of employees’ health data and about the booth’s hygiene. One year on from the launch of the health pathway, our statistics have backed up our decisions. Devising a model to pay for them is the next task. Even so, the idea has already attracted Icade’s commercial property arm, which plans to offer this service to tenants of our business parks.”

Thomas Saint-Peron,
Lyfe’s digital marketing department

One of the goals for Lyfe was to play a part in transforming use of health products and services, by combining the simplicity of digital products with the expertise of health professionals. Health advisors on standby round-the-clock enable Lyfe’s users to ask doctors for advice by email, chat, video link or phone, 24 hours a day. This service gives users access to high-quality health information and advice. Lyfe goes beyond strictly healthcare questions and covers prevention, coaching and well-being, plus tips for the elderly. The platform also offers a broad spectrum of assistance services for carers, information, guidance and in-home diagnostics. We empower users to help relatives with care needs or losing the ability to lead independent lives to promote solidarity between the generations. This is a truly compelling aspect of Lyfe.

CNP Assurances invests in start-ups

H4D has been working on the Consult Station® since 2008. This mobile connected medical booth, which is kitted out with high-calibre measuring devices, is able to deal with 85% of GP consultations remotely. As well as helping to prevent health issues from occurring in the workforce when installed at a business, it can also be used to offer telemedicine in the medical deserts forming in France.

H4D’s core mission is to combat healthcare inequalities, whether they be social or geographical.  The support provided by CNP Assurances fits perfectly with its digital aspirations and its vision to provide insurance cover for all.

Franck Baudino
Founder of H4D (Health for Development)

Rolling out these new services for as many people as possible

These services are not currently reimbursed by the French social security system. To broaden access to this new approach to healthcare, CNP Assurances is proposing that its partner businesses, mutuals and personal risk insurers should jointly bear the cost of Lyfe’s services. For example, asking a doctor a question at any time of day and getting an answer within an hour costs €6. Negotiations with service providers based on volume commitments has reduced the cost by 15%. The business can also contribute. That’s what CNP Assurances has decided to do by offering this service to its employees under the quality of life in the workplace agreement. It bears the cost of 50% of the question. More broadly, a contribution from the supplementary health insurer for prevention purposes appears a distinct possibility in the future. And that could ultimately open up access to this type of service to a much larger number of people.

Stéphane Godart, 
Icade employee

The installation of the booth captured my interest. It’s ground-breaking, and my colleague encouraged me to try it out! I set up an appointment with the booking service. On the appropriate day, the person set me up, and I followed the tutorial – it’s very easy to use. Then all you have to do is log on to the personal results area to view your (confidential) results and it helps you understand them by providing clear explanations. The ECG is also of interest to me, because I want to get myself in prime condition for the New York marathon. You are alone in the booth, which means you are more relaxed than when you are with a doctor.

Marie Michel, 
Icade employee

I needed to have some X-rays taken. Thanks to Lyfe, I set up an appointment in Paris within 48 hours at a centre close to my office. A long list of medical appointments can be arranged, and that can be very useful. I also tested the H4D booth to have a check-up. It confirmed that I am short-sighted, and I finally decided to address the problem!

Partnership with Mutuelle Nationale Territoriale (MNT)

Full-scale testing started with 600 people enrolled in the trial, of whom 20% went on to use the services. That provided plenty of encouragement for MNT to roll out Lyfe across the board to its 750,000 potential users in early 2017.

1.8 million beneficiaries had access to Lyfe and its services by the beginning of 2017

Data confidentiality essential for trust

Little by little, insurers are becoming aggregators of services and solutions delivered by all kinds of providers with very different core businesses. The key challenge is to organise and manage relationships between the stakeholders – the solution providers, the payers and the service users. While this multi-intermediary framework can certainly deliver a richer range of services, the issue of the confidentiality of personal health data needs to be addressed. Users’ complete confidence is a vital pre-requisite – without it they will not use the services. CNP Assurances provides them with two guarantees. The first is based on Lyfe’s technical architecture. Neither the platform, nor parent company CNP Assurances, nor the distributors have access to the personal health data. Lyfe works only with approved healthcare service providers with health data hosting (HDS) accreditation from the French health ministry. The second guarantee comes from the organisation itself with the nomination of a data protection officer, a consumer mediator and a lawyer dedicated to the Lyfe service platform.

Because the workplace is changing

The new quality of life in the workplace agreement incorporates all the advances of recent years in terms of professional equality, prevention of psycho-social risks, and giving employees a voice. It maps out future areas of advancement, such as the right to log off and teleworking.

Virginie Oget, 
CNP Assurances’ Head of Employee Relations

This agreement reflects the latest changes in how people work. It talks about making decisions jointly and encourages experimenting with new methods. It aims to achieve the best possible working conditions for CNP Assurances’ employees amid the ongoing transformation in the insurance world.