The past two years have been fraught with difficulties for the healthcare industry. Labor shortages have negatively impacted hospitals and health systems nationwide, intensifying the burden on healthcare workers already strained. In fact, the latest job report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has shown healthcare employment down by nearly half a million since February 2020.
While a lack of sufficient staff has obvious implications on providing patient care, the labor
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What You Don’t Know About Your Patients Could Cost You
Healthcare spending is projected to exceed $6 trillion by 2028, largely driven by rising costs of care for an aging population and the growing number of Americans suffering from chronic physical conditions such as pulmonary disease, diabetes and hypertension.
To improve health outcomes while lowering cost of care, providers and payors increasingly are implementing value-based care (VBC) payment models. VBC contracts are structured to reward proactive and preventive healthcare, measurable
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With No End in Sight for COVID, Why Is Congress Not Acting on Telehealth?
Long gone are the days of physicians arriving at a patient’s bedside, medical bag, and stethoscope in tow. The idea of a house call is quaint, like something seen in an old movie. But during the COVID pandemic, this olden idea has received a high-tech upgrade in the form of telehealth. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services recently acted in the best interests of patients and health care providers by covering telehealth services through 2023. But unless Congress acts to expand coverage
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3 Ways Artificial Intelligence Can be Used to Improve Health Equity
When I graduated from medical school and took the Hippocratic Oath, I vowed to not just treat the illness on a patient’s medical history form but to treat the person behind the diagnosis. To do this well, clinicians need to understand the whole person and the context in which they live — their race, gender identity, native language, socioeconomic status, or zip code, among other things — to ensure equitable care. According to the CDC, health equity is reached when every person has the
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Top 5 Data Management Challenges Healthcare Organizations Face
In the United States, healthcare costs make up more than 17% of GDP.
The data that healthcare organizations generate, collect, and manage is massive, having an ever-growing impact on the industry. RBC Capital Markets, a global investment bank, estimates that approximately 30% of the world’s data volume is generated by the healthcare industry. By 2025, the compound annual growth rate of data for healthcare will reach 36%. That’s 6% faster than manufacturing, 10% faster than financial
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Why Value-Based Care Requires Value-Based Administration
Value-based care (VBC) is finally gaining steam among healthcare organizations as executives look to implement processes that boost patient outcomes and rein in elevated levels of spending. To that end, more than 90% of health system executives say they expect VBC contracts will continue to grow in the coming years.
Despite the widespread popularity of the concept of VBC, making it work is something of an “all-hands-on-deck” approach. VBC relies on the collaboration between many
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How Healthcare Consumerism is Driving Integration in 2022
Healthcare consumerism is not just a buzzword. It’s a movement changing the reality of how it is delivered. Retailers and other industries like banking and travel with strong consumer strategies understand how to appeal to consumers through convenience and simplicity, two characteristics that healthcare is trying to emulate.
A 2020 consumer experience study uncovered that the process of finding, accessing and paying for healthcare in the U.S. is so inconvenient that half of the consumers
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5 Tech Solutions For Employee Management In A Growing Healthcare Facility
Tech solutions in health care are getting the spotlight these days. Propelled by the sudden changes that the pandemic brought forth, the various quickly developed solutions were aimed to address a wide scope of old and entirely new problems within the industry.
In terms of advantages, the benefits that modern technology brings to healthcare are common for a number of other fields: optimizing workflows, simpler updating and accessibility of patient care protocols, and easier time and staff
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5 Trends Bringing Effective Intelligence into Revenue Cycle in 2022
5 revenue cycle management trends that will drive adoption of automation, data-first processes, employee effectiveness and virtualization
Many physician practices are facing a harsh reality as they enter 2022: The revenue cycle processes and technology that have traditionally produced an acceptable bottom line are no longer delivering.
Tectonic shifts in the way healthcare organizations are reimbursed are unearthing the shortfalls of reactive systems that don’t get ahead of claims issues,
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3 Ways Conversational Insight Can Unlock a Positive Patient Experience
The healthcare landscape is changing, and not just because of the pandemic. Trends like consumerization and reimbursements tied to patient experience have pushed many healthcare providers toward an accelerated digital transformation – including the modernization of the contact center. Those that have embraced this transformation have started to implement solutions and structures like patient portals and a single contact center that handles every patient request, from appointment scheduling to
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