COVID-19 created a colossal opportunity for health plans and providers to reimagine how they engage with patients. With patients apprehensive about going to the doctor during the pandemic, it became even more vital to keep track of their health in between visits. This is where remote patient monitoring (RPM) becomes critical to every payer and provider’s virtual health strategy. RPM uses digital technologies to collect data about symptoms, medications, treatment, and biometrics from individuals
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The Crucial Role of SDOH Data in Value-Based Care
Roughly $4 trillion is spent on healthcare annually in the U.S. Despite this massive expenditure, roughly 80% of health outcomes are attributed to social, behavioral and environmental factors, known as social determinants of health (SDOH).
What has been far less clear is how providers and payers can fully harness SDOH data to proactively manage the health of patients and members. Technological and cultural barriers have made it difficult for disparate parties such as
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What Population Health Management Providers Need to Know About HITRUST CSF Certification
Healthcare companies continue to implement value-based care and population health management initiatives to coordinate healthcare delivery and improve the quality and value of patient care. These initiatives depend on the ability to access, aggregate, and analyze massive amounts of patient data, often coming from hundreds of source systems. Critical system interoperability and data-sharing agreements enable healthcare organizations to aggregate data and build massive data assets to support their
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Finetuning Quality Measure Reporting to Perform Like Professional Athletes
Healthcare organizations deal with a seemingly endless list of demands, including expanding access to care, financial sustainability, staffing shortages, rigorous data security, government regulations and quality improvement initiatives. Many organizations can operate at full speed and still find they cannot keep up with all the demands.
Quality programs facilitated by CMS and commercial health plans provide critical funding to support healthcare operations. They require diligent data
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As CMS Delays CHART, Rural Providers Need to Take Value-Based Care into Their Own Hands
The answer to solving a healthcare crisis that exacerbates barriers to care among some of the most vulnerable patient populations in the country is staring us in the face. For rural hospitals straining under the weight of erratic patient volumes, sicker populations and lack of funding, the path forward is in value-based care. But providers can’t stand idly by waiting for the government to step in and help them make that change. They need to save themselves.
That may sound like a big lift for
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Can Technology Improve How We Treat (or Prevent) Chronic Conditions?
The prevalence of chronic disease in the United States will increase over the next several decades among all age groups, as will the associated care costs, and physical, mental and social consequences. Major obstacles to effective chronic care management (CCM) include:
- Patients rarely suffer from a single chronic condition at the time of their diagnosis1. They are given multiple prescriptions and treatments with differing instructions and guidance, which is overwhelming and can lead to
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Making Telehealth Accessible to Underserved Communities Requires a Multifaceted Approach
Over the last year, people across the U.S. have adopted telehealth in record numbers, signaling what people in the industry have long believed — virtual doctor visits and prescription delivery has the potential to truly increase access to high-quality, convenient care.
The meteoric rise of telehealth has also come with its challenges, one of the biggest being equity. A recent study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine details that the people who use telehealth in the
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Can Blockchain-Enabled Telehealth Uphold the Sovereignty of Physicians?
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted yet again the immensely important role played by healthcare professionals across the globe, but it has also presented immeasurable challenges to physicians themselves. As frontline workers, they are placing their lives at risk day in, day out, to ensure the health of their patients. Face-to-face assessments during a pandemic can be a perilous situation for both physicians and patients alike: a study undertaken by the University of Pennsylvania Medical Centre
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How to Bolster EHR Efficiency and Access to Offer Better Patient Care
Over the past few decades, technology has advanced health care in incredible ways. Between robotic surgery, training through augmented reality, and the use of wearables to enhance health data, the industry has embraced numerous advances to improve patient care.
However, the industry’s relationship with technology hasn’t always been seamless. While doctors and nurses work diligently to keep patients informed, more than 50% of clinicians suffer from regular burnout. The leading culprit?
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Telehealth Averted Healthcare Collapse During COVID – Will Inertia Kill Further Adoption?
Major, deep-rooted problems in the healthcare system were brought into sharp focus by the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare organizations in many regions – already stretched to near-full capacity before the pandemic – have been pushed to the brink of collapse. While they scrambled to respond, they began to lean heavily into the nascent tools and techniques of telehealth to keep the public safe. This shift has been corroborated by a recent Parks Association study identified significant increase in
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