Perhaps the only thing more complicated than choosing a vendoris making sure the vendor you choose is held accountable.

As many companies enlist brokers to help them filter vendors,it’s ultimately the broker who needs to be responsible for thevendors he or she recommends, as well as their impact on plandesign and the company’s bottom line.

The challenge is particularly acute in today’s population healthand wellness space given the sheer number ofoptions available – from complete, integrated platforms to programs on everything from sleep management tomindfulness, to the breadth of mHealth and biometric devices.

Making a decision based on “imperfect” information (akamarketing collaterals) or on backward-looking data (claims data vs.wellness data) can lead to very expensive mistakes; investing in afailed program or initiative that can’t be easily “unwound” willexact a steep price, and quite possibly sour employees on otherinitiatives going forward.

To avoid these mistakes, the first step is to establishmeaningful evaluation criteria that can – and should – be appliedto all vendors, holding them all to a single, universalstandard.

This begins with a set of best practices in assuring thesecurity, quality and privacy of personalhealth data, and the ability to measure outcomes and productivitydata, which gives you a valid, objective idea of what’s working andwhat’s not.

These are the top five items and performance criteria you shouldalways considered in evaluating vendors before and during theengagement:

1. Security. There are several criticalsecurity standards that vendors must follow, including HITRUST, SOC2, PCI, ISO 27001, etc. If certification is not available, thenevidence of policies, enforcements, and third-party securityscanning should be made available upon request. Personallyidentifiable information should only be sent through a securechannel.

Sending Social Security numbers and other patient data throughunsecured channel allows unauthorized access to it, which can leadto identify theft. It is the vendor’s responsibility to ensure thesecurity of the information; you should regularly monitor that theyare consistently using secure channels, such as FitDoc.

2. Data Quality. By this, we mean accuracy,completeness, validity, integrity, and duplication. These criteriashould be enforced at the member registration, operation, reportsand billing phases.

Vendors should deploy a reliable method to validate memberregistration in the health and wellness program, and crossreference it with a valid data source for eligibility. The oldadage “garbage in, garbage out” applies, as vendors need to be heldaccountable for data quality, as inaccurate information willinvariably lead to faulty conclusions and bad decisions.

3. Privacy. Transparency in dealing withmembers’ privacy is essential in member engagement. Members shouldknow who can see their data, where the data is going and how it’sbeing used.

Additionally, they should be able to opt out from certain items(such as outreach efforts and extended personal data capture). Also, it is essential to ensure that vendors are HIPAAcompliant and have the ability to notify the affected parties whena violation occurs.

4. Program effectiveness. At the outset ofevery engagement, the vendor and customer must establish mutuallyagreed upon criteria for program effectiveness (participatinglevels, health outcome change, sustained engagement, medical spend,etc.). It is a collaborative approach leading to a successfulengagement. Once these criteria are set, the automation andanalysis of the data must be in place.

Ideally, the analysis is conducted by a neutral platform thatgenerates objective effectiveness data – rather than relying onvendors who have an interest in reporting certain results; thislets you make vendors accountable to performance metrics that youlay out and are most meaningful to you.

5. Technology. How well and reliably yourunderlying technology performs is an essential part of evaluating awellness initiative. To determine the performance of the actualtechnology, the following should be considered: Implementation,member and manager satisfaction, system uptime, scalability,security, and quality.

Other considerations ought to include the speed at which data ismoved within the system and the efficiency/accuracy of theautomation.

The lingering uncertainties in today’s health and wellnessmarket, coupled with the need for patient-centric solutions thatmake health care more manageable and cost-effective, place brokersin an ever-more-critical advisory role. Organizations need to relyon brokers to make informed decisions, think strategically, andimplement practical solutions with the flexibility to supportgrowth…and adapt to change.

To the extent that health and wellness is technology-driven,brokers will need to bring a systematic approach in evaluating theefficacy of the solutions they recommend.

It’s important to bear in mind that it’s one thing to haveevaluation criteria in place but quite another to continuouslymonitor vendor performance, which is a challenge.

Systematic monitoring – and scoring – can be done byimplementing a more expansive population health framework thatfunctions much like a health operating system (OS) that centralizesall of the component technologies, where performance criteria canbe preset, and reports generated on-demand for real-time visibilityinto each app or technology.

Such a framework should give brokers and their clients theability to see what’s working, what’s not, and to make changeson-the-fly to improve performance and, most importantly,demonstrable health outcomes.

Platform technology and vendor integrity are critical tostrategy execution. Top brokers provide – at a minimum – expertisein vendor selection.

Equipped with the ability to continuously refine and improvehealth and wellness delivery, these brokers have a significantadvantage in helping clients navigate the complex health andwellness marketplace, offering them stability and flexibility whiledriving innovation and results.