Healthcare costs are consuming an increasingly large share of household budgets. A RAND study found that payments to finance healthcare averaged $9,393 per person, or nearly 19% of average household income. For many families, that means more than a line item on a paycheck. It shapes the way people decide when to see a doctor, whether to fill a prescription, and how secure they feel in their jobs. A benefit once seen as a cornerstone of compensation is now a source of financial stress. For
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Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
ACOG Declares Telehealth an “Ethical Imperative” for Obstetric Care
The maternal healthcare industry has been divided over the use of telehealth since the early days of its use for obstetrics.
Concerns about losing the personal connection of the physician-provider relationship, compromising the quality of care, and adding more work to a strained labor force initially complicated the adoption of telehealth. However, a growing body of research and on-the-ground experience slowly dispelled those concerns, and the COVID pandemic accelerated an emerging clinical
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More Safe Days at Home: A Call to Redesign Pediatric Care
For children with special health care needs, the line between stability and crisis is razor-thin. A quiet day at home can quickly spiral into an unplanned hospital admission. Even during moments of calm, families live with constant anxiety that a small change in condition could trigger the next emergency.
It shouldn’t be that way.
Time at home should be safe and supported, not a fragile pause between hospitalizations. Yet today’s healthcare system still defaults to crisis response,
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The Future of Pharma Marketing: How AI and Real-World Data Are Redefining Personalization
Consumers are increasingly learning about potential drug therapies from advertising across the media channels they use regularly – whether it be broadcast or streaming TV, social media, display ads, or streaming radio. One survey found that 63% of patients learned about new treatments through pharmaceutical ads, but capturing and retaining consumer attention continues to be an uphill battle for pharmaceutical marketers, with many consumers experiencing advertising saturation and fatigue. Life
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The Future of Population Health: Why Early Detection via AI Radiology Matters
If you ask most people to define healthcare, they’ll likely describe what happens after someone becomes sick and begins receiving care. But could healthcare begin before illness ever showed up? Rather than waiting for patients to experience symptoms, what if care started with prevention, earlier stage detection, and access to critical diagnostic tools?
Screening healthy people for a range of diseases makes early detection and intervention possible. Depending on the disease, those diagnosed
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The Organ Shortage Solution: Why Living Kidney Donation is Better Than Waiting for Xenotransplantation
Over 100,000 Americans are currently waiting for an organ transplant, and over 85% of those are in need of a kidney. As the demand for organ transplants continues to far outpace supply, increasing the number of organ donations remains an urgent priority. Most people are familiar with checking the box on their driver’s license, opting in to become an organ donor after death; but few realize that only three in 1,000 people pass away in circumstances that make organ
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ACA Open Enrollment 2026: Why Integrated Health Tech is Key to Navigating 23.4% Premium Spikes and Subsidy Uncertainty
The upcoming Affordable Care Act (ACA) Open Enrollment (OE) period presents at least three major challenges for health plans: Legislative changes, double-digit premium increases, and potentially expiring subsidies. To maintain membership and a positive user experience, health plans must carefully evaluate their approach to enrollment, engagement, and retention.
New rules are reshaping OE workflows, while price increases create affordability concerns for members. It’s difficult for
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Beyond Stereotypes: 3 Ways Empathetic Outreach Can Drive Medicaid Member Engagement and Retention Post-OBBA
Connecting with Medicaid members has never been so challenging—or so crucial—as the system faces great uncertainty in light of the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Finding inroads that resonate with members can be difficult as this diverse segment faces plenty of barriers to care that also inhibit meaningful connections. Non-medical social drivers of health, such as lack of transportation, food and housing insecurities, and even basic health literacy can get in the way of
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Evolve or Be Left Behind: The Quiet Reckoning for Health Insurance Agencies
The health insurance sector is facing a quiet but urgent reckoning: modernize or risk falling behind. While much of the industry’s attention has focused on consumer-facing innovations, like mobile apps and AI chatbots, the greater challenge may lie behind the scenes in the legacy systems that govern policy administration, enrollment, and commissions.
Back-office processes now shape agency competitiveness, investor confidence, and consumer trust. Over 70% of insurance customers prefer
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5 Trends to Expect From Vocal Biomarker Technology in 2026
Vocal biomarker data has come a long way in a short amount of time. No longer relegated to the pages of science fiction, the power of the human voice to assist in diagnoses is established fact.
Providers already possess technological platforms that make informed care recommendations based on vocal biomarker data. Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, researchers have identified a wide range of conditions — Parkinson’s, mild cognitive impairment, etc. — that can be detected
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