The US News & World Report's Healthcare of Tomorrow conference discussed the future of healthcare, narrowing down the trends into four main areas: a move towards home-based care; a greater focus on value-based care; greater awareness of the social determinants of health; and the growing need for bipartisan input. The first trend, home care provision for patients, offers more comprehensive, cost-effective services in a more convenient location for patients using technology. Telemedicine can offer rural patients increased access, and is likely to be more common as a general health care channel once it is more widely used as a “regular” care path. Growing consumerism in healthcare has led to a greater focus on keeping health care at home for convenience. The change to a more value-based care system, however, has taken some time to implement. The CMS has finalized the Quality Payment Program regulation for next year, but this exempts a significant number of doctors. Private healthcare companies are partnering to offer technology and data-driven, value-based care options. Medical companies find it difficult to innovate, as the system presents as a value-based one, while still functioning as fee-for-service in terms of business income. However, the general opinion within health management organizations is that care delivery will be revolutionized within the next five to ten years through virtualized and technology-based services, offered through platforms, apps and services. In addition to these trends, there have been several other developments over the past few years. Value-based insurance is also an area where patients can be incentivized, moving them away from lower-value care. If it can’t be in the home, it should be at a retail clinic only a few miles away, he said. Social determinants are an increasingly important area of focus, as evidence grows that issues such as food security, affordable housing and more affect the changes in good health outcomes. Payers should be considering how social determinants affect health as it could help to prevent issues before they arise, creating savings for ER departments and other emergency healthcare points. The final trend is the increasing call on forming bipartisan agreements for healthcare. The difficulties that recently arose with the “repeal and replace” agenda of the present administration, as well as the ongoing budget issues, create uncertainty that leads to an unstable healthcare environment. Major social programs require the support of all political groups to succeed, with healthcare advocates calling for Congress to abandon the idea of reforming the Affordable Care Act and to actively work across parties to improve it.
The US News & World Report's Healthcare of Tomorrow conference discussed the future of healthcare, narrowing down the trends into four main areas: a move towards home-based care; a greater focus on value-based care; greater awareness of the social determinants of health; and the growing need for bipartisan input. The first trend, home care provision for patients, offers more comprehensive, cost-effective services in a more convenient location for patients using technology. Telemedicine can offer rural patients increased access, and is likely to be more common as a general health care channel once it is more widely used as a “regular” care path. Growing consumerism in healthcare has led to a greater focus on keeping health care at home for convenience. The change to a more value-based care system, however, has taken some time to implement. The CMS has finalized the Quality Payment Program regulation for next year, but this exempts a significant number of doctors. Private healthcare companies are partnering to offer technology and data-driven, value-based care options. Medical companies find it difficult to innovate, as the system presents as a value-based one, while still functioning as fee-for-service in terms of business income. However, the general opinion within health management organizations is that care delivery will be revolutionized within the next five to ten years through virtualized and technology-based services, offered through platforms, apps and services. In addition to these trends, there have been several other developments over the past few years. Value-based insurance is also an area where patients can be incentivized, moving them away from lower-value care. Social determinants are an increasingly important area of focus, as evidence grows that issues such as food security, affordable housing and more affect the changes in good health outcomes. Payers should be considering how social determinants affect health as it could help to prevent issues before they arise, creating savings for ER departments and other emergency healthcare points. The final trend is the increasing call on forming bipartisan agreements for healthcare. The difficulties that recently arose with the “repeal and replace” agenda of the present administration, as well as the ongoing budget issues, create uncertainty that leads to an unstable healthcare environment. Major social programs require the support of all political groups to succeed, with healthcare advocates calling for Congress to abandon the idea of reforming the Affordable Care Act and to actively work across parties to improve it.