The Future of Healthcare: Top Trends Providers Need to Address Now

As we emerge from a global pandemic, accountable care organizations must address key new trends now to maintain progress toward value-based care and mitigate financial risk. 

Analytics are key to helping ACOs gain a better understanding of trends so they can identify opportunities to drive quality improvement. These trends include:

• gaps in access to clinical care; 
• shifts in patient volume;
• increased demand for virtual care; and 
• social determinants of health challenges. 

To better understand rising trends and actions providers should take, we will reach out to hospital and health system leaders to discuss how recent trends influenced their decision to adopt value-based contracts. Then, during our July 28 webinar, we will release a comprehensive market report on these trends and implications for the future.

Preventing gaps in access to clinical care

Advanced payment models incentivize ACOs to deliver high-quality care and close gaps in care for patients, thereby earning shared savings and increasing margins. Using data analytics, providers can gain valuable insight into their performance and identify opportunities for improvement. To address gaps in access to clinical care, providers should leverage analytics to guide deployment of resources and development of new programs, such as new virtual care technologies, to drive quality improvement.

Shifts in patient volume 

While patient volumes that dropped at the start of the pandemic are now rebounding, providers are beginning to shift toward expansion of digital delivery models and increasing their service line offerings to stay engaged with patients outside the hospital. Providers should invest in the right technology infrastructure to stay in communication with patients to identify gaps in patient care, improve the quality of care delivery and track quality metrics and performance.

Accelerated demand for virtual care

Before the pandemic, telehealth was underutilized in most markets due to limited reimbursement to rural providers and restricted use in some alternative payment models. Thanks to reimbursement changes during the pandemic that reformed telehealth payment policy, there has been an increased uptake. Providers must be more strategic in how they develop virtual offerings to meet consumer demand and attract payer partners. 

Identifying and addressing social determinants of health

COVID-19 shined a light on existing health inequities. Medicare and Medicaid populations, already susceptible to social determinants of health such as poor nutrition, transportation challenges and increased rates of depression and anxiety, grew sicker due to gaps in access to care. To address these challenges, CMS issued guidance to state Medicaid directors to incorporate value-based strategies that provide Medicaid beneficiaries with efficient, high-quality care, while lowering costs and improving health outcomes. Providers should adopt value-based care arrangements that present opportunities for addressing challenges caused by social determinants of health.

Conclusion

The rapid changes in healthcare driven by the pandemic have only further emphasized the need for providers to lean into value-based care. New regulatory flexibilities and care delivery innovation create an opportunity for providers to realize a more rapid rate of return on their investment in value-based care by enhancing their business revenue with value-based care reimbursement. 

Contact us to learn how your organization can leverage data to get ahead and determine the impact of new healthcare trends, assess risk and adopt key strategies to improve patient outcomes. We also invite you to listen to our webinar with healthcare thought leaders, Future of Healthcare: Top Trends Providers Need to Address Now.