The vaccine rollout is following patterns that are all too familiar -- but we can change that Newscasters sounded surprised when they announced for the first time that COVID-19 was disproportionately affecting Black, Indigenous, and people of color. As they presented graphs that showed higher rates of infection, hospitalization, and death, their tone was one of mild shock. Similar surprise-- and similar graphs-- returned when they reported on the slowed, uneven vaccine rollout in poorer
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Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Post-COVID Telehealth in Europe: What Works for Primary Care? – Analysis
The European primary care telehealth market has been transformed since the outbreak of COVID-19 more than 15 months ago. But which countries have developed an ecosystem that is primed for long-term growth that will bring value and improved processes to both healthcare providers and patients? A key starting point is to define the vendors that serve primary care telehealth. There are two types of company that address this market. - Telehealth Service Providers – These are companies that sell
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KLAS: Growth of Drug Diversion Monitoring Market
Often when we talk about the opioid epidemic, the focus is rightly on the suffering that the situation has caused. However, it’s important not to miss the surrounding context of this crisis, and what various health systems have started to uncover. Currently, health systems face a huge challenge in tracking and managing their controlled substances. One of the technology-based solutions to the problem is drug diversion monitoring systems, which KLAS reported on in a recent report. While
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The Role of Digital Mental Health in the Healthcare Journey
With more than 20,000 apps available to address myriad mental health challenges with varying degrees of support, it’s clear that digital mental health is experiencing a boom. But there seems to be little consensus regarding the true role that digital therapeutics can and should play within the greater context of a patient’s mental health care journey. In order to better articulate this role, we need to take a person-centered view and understand how digital therapeutics can help people not just
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Why Provider-Payer Collaboration is the Secret to Value-Based Success
Just before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, 48% of healthcare providers surveyed said three-quarters of their organization’s payments were grounded in fee-for-service models of care. Fast forward a year and the financial aftershocks of the pandemic have highlighted some of the benefits of value-based models for providers as well as health plans and consumers. Despite the benefits of incentive-based payment models in healthcare, including indications that it may reduce readmissions and
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Applying A Hedge Fund Mentality for Investing in Social Determinants of Health
While I am a practicing clinician, I am a firm believer that improvements in healthcare most often come from borrowing the best ideas from other business models. For example, I have sometimes borrowed from software company and payer colleague insights to describe value-based care (VBC) reimbursement as a subscription model. This model would provide more consistent revenue and allow organizations to better weather challenging times like a pandemic. For providers, this would allow freedom from the
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4 Common Pitfalls of Remote Patient Monitoring to Avoid
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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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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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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