Amid the difficulties of the last year, a bright spot has emerged that may provide a strong indication of renewed movement toward the transformation of the healthcare industry that we know today. Value-based care, a model that rewards better patient health outcomes, has experienced a surge in interest amid heightened consumer awareness and among payers seeking to lower costs and stabilize reimbursement. This interest, along with the recent mandate from the Centers for
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Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Why Family Caregivers Need Help from the Healthcare Establishment
I recently spoke with a woman whose husband contracted a serious, chronic illness that requires long-term use of a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) line.
As her husband’s primary caregiver, this woman is responsible for cleaning and flushing the PICC line three times a day. And while she knows how to carry out these functions, she nonetheless remains fearful of inadvertently introducing bacteria into the line and the consequences that could result.
For this woman, the
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Taking a Platform Approach to Drug Pricing Issues Can Help Unify Adversarial Sides
Healthcare is a notoriously complex industry with a multitude of stakeholders, many of whom find themselves in adversarial positions, simply due to the way the market operates. Ultimately, there is a shared goal of providing the best care to the patient. But as stakeholder relationships grow more complex, there can also be conflicts that drive wedges between parties and hamper successful collaboration.
We see this dynamic playing out in many areas of healthcare, but particularly in drug
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6 Steps for Securing Patient Information in Healthcare
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) strive for innovations in healthcare technologies that drive down costs and improve the patient experience. One big step forward is the 21st Century Cures Act passed in 2016, putting patients in charge of their own health records.
Then in 2021, both the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) Information Blocking Rule went into effect, which aims to drive
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4 Ways Hospitals Benefit From Improved Surgery Scheduling
Hospitals rely on elective surgeries as a source of up to 50% of all revenue, allowing them to take losses on a range of high-cost service lines to remain profitable. The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the impact of reduced surgery volume, with hospitals suffering immediate revenue loss and negative profit margins.
As surgical service lines return to pre-pandemic volumes, it’s imperative for hospitals to have the right technology tools and best practices in place to maintain safe, accurate, and
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Learning from Financial Fraud Detection to Tackle Opioid Abuse Amid COVID-19
Despite falling from its prominent place in the headlines, America’s opioid crisis is still raging. Anxiety, stress, depression, and isolation caused by the pandemic have contributed to substance use disorders. At the same time, the Drug Enforcement Administration has loosened prescribing restrictions, including waiving the requirement for in-person visits and allowing clinicians to prescribe controlled substances via telemedicine alone.
Given these conditions, it is not surprising that over
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How Machine Learning Is Helping Consumers Take Action on Their Health
For years machine learning (ML) has been touted as a way for health plans to leverage the mounds of data they collect on their members, but practical use cases remain relatively uncommon. For some, the perception may be that ML is a futuristic and somewhat impersonal way to operate, but the exact opposite is true — ML is already being used and is here to stay, and when deployed correctly it actually creates a more personalized experience for members.
The first thought might be that ML and
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SDOH Strategies All Provider Organizations Should be Adopting Now
There is growing concern among many well-respected providers about the consequences of fewer preventive services over the past 1½ years as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As patients slowly start to resume care throughout 2021 and into 2022, experts predict we will see a spike in the number of severe or late-stage diagnoses that normally would have been caught much earlier. As a result, we may face more complex situations and costlier treatments in terms of their economic, physical, and
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Hospital at Home: Aligning Provider Needs with Patient Wishes
2020 saw three factors combine to define the future of “Hospital at Home” care in a way that will become a new care reality over the coming years.
Changing Patient Attitudes
Patients became more reluctant and concerned about going to hospitals. The fear of contracting illnesses such as Healthcare Acquired Infections (HAIs), like sepsis, is a real and legitimate concern. While the number of patients has been declining, around 100,000 people die each year in the US from contracting an HAI in
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4 Best Practices to Deliver Virtual Palliative Care for Providers
More and more people are living with serious illnesses such as cancer, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and liver disease. The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) reports that 60 percent of U.S. adults have a chronic disease, which is the leading cause of death and disability and the leading driver of healthcare costs.
Palliative care is well-positioned to meet the unique needs of seriously ill individuals by helping to deliver
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