Sean Duffy is the co-founder and CEO of Omada Health Inc., a San Francisco-based health and wellness provider specializing in technology-based chronic disease management and digital therapeutics. He recently spoke with Business Insurance Associate Editor Matt Dunning about ways employers can more effectively leverage technology to manage — if not prevent — diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other costly chronic conditions among their employees. Edited excerpts follow.

Q: Why is chronic disease management such a critical issue for employers to address in their health benefits strategy?

A: About $500 billion out of the $3 trillion spent on health care in the U.S. is directly related to chronic diseases caused by obesity, principally diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Additionally, we just heard from the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) a few weeks ago that, on a given trajectory, 40% of adults will be diagnosed with Type II diabetes. That trajectory just isn’t tenable for the country, and it’s something that we think falls squarely into the category of things that a benefits manager, human resources manager or C-suite executive can take the reins of. In fact, it’s an area where employers are already deploying some efforts, and they have the potential to go even further.

For an employer, the average medical cost of an employee with Type II diabetes is roughly $10,000 per year. Without it, it’s about $4,000 per year. Once someone is diagnosed with that disease, it ticks off a medical protocol designed to keep that person healthy but costing a lot of money. It also results in more absences from work and other non-health-related costs. And if action isn’t taken and complications arising from diabetes progress, the costs really start to soar.

Q: Generally speaking, what would you say employers are doing well in their efforts to manage chronic disease among their employees?

A: What the employer community is doing well is, more often than not, realizing that working to improve their employees’ health — and in particular managing and reducing the incidence of chronic disease — needs to be a part of their core strategy. We used to live in a world where that wasn’t the case, but today we rarely talk with an organization and find that they don’t know that it’s important and that they should be doing something.

In terms of how these programs are orchestrated, we’ve seen a whole range of approaches, from very light touch, passive programs to very deeply focused initiatives.

Q: Conversely, where are those efforts falling short?

A: We sometimes talk about the fallacy of a big and broad wellness program, where deploying something for everyone in the company might be necessary to develop a culture of health, but it tends to limit your impact in terms of health outcomes. The reality in the employer landscape is that companies often deploy solutions that don’t dive deeply enough into the individual employee’s health issues and work toward a desired outcome as they perhaps should.

I think employers often try too hard to boil the ocean versus focusing on the portion of their workforce that could really use a more focused approach to improve their health. That portion is what we call the “tipping point” population, in that they’re overweight to the point that they have the warning signs of chronic disease in their biometrics, and their bodies are reacting to those warning signs. Once they tip into the chronic stage, it becomes harder and harder to bring them back.

Q: What are some of the barriers preventing employers from taking a more individualized approach in chronic disease management, and how can they overcome them?

A: I think technology is presenting a lot of solutions to some of the barriers that have existed historically. I think what tends to move the needle in terms of chronic disease management and prevention are programs that are very rich in social support and relationships, and programs that equip employers with the data to measure whether they’re achieving success or not.

If you look at Omada’s “Prevent” program, we use the data we get back from individuals to build an outcomes-based pricing model so the employer knows that they’re not paying if the program’s not working.

Those kinds of solutions — ours and similar programs from companies that work in our industry space — that can allow employers to measure and report back on the clinical impact of their programs are kind of a new thing, and it’s a neat moment for employers to be able to take advantage of those technologies to advance the era of accountability in health care.

Q: How can employers overcome employee resistance to health-related behavioral and lifestyle-change initiatives?

A: These programs have to be very consumer-forward. At the end of the day, anybody engaging in a program like this — especially digitally — votes with their feet. The goal is to make the program feel like the gift that it is to employees, and market the value of the program to employees in a way that they’re excited to be getting it without having to pay for it.

You have to make it appealing in that way, otherwise you do get that resistance from your employees. Either not that many of them will be interested in it enough to participate, or they’ll feel uncomfortable with the idea of their employer pushing the program.

Q: How will technology continue to evolve in helping employers manage their employee health care strategies?

A: In 10 years we’re going to wake up in a world in which the way we deliver health care to employees is completely different thanks to technology.