The Economics of the New Healthcare Era: Part 1 - What Has Been Happening?
The following events have been taking place the past few years. It was decided in 2012 that there was a need for strong healthcare analytics. Along with the need for analytics in healthcare was the need for analytic solutions which would help the healthcare system in regulatory compliance, reducing hospital admissions and hospital stays. Also, solutions were needed to address the prevention of chronic disease, improve the quality of care, increase fraud detection, and most importantly, reduce the cost of care. During the past five years, initiatives were set in place to identify and reduce the cost of practices that were associated with a high dollar amount and to reduce escalating CPT billings. Prescriptive analytics were set in place to better forecast costs and the quality of care through data collection, data sharing, and improved actuarials.
The results we have seen to date (and there are more to come), are systematic quality improvements along with cost reduction, enhancing the physician-patient relationship and clinical risk intervention with population management. This has also led to new technological advances in healthcare monitoring of the patient, a steady upward increase in the number of the physicians extenders, changes in licensing laws and scope of practice laws of healthcare professionals (telemedicine), patient direct access to nurse practitioners, and the incorporation of new alternative payment models. By the year 2020, there will be little resemblance to the healthcare landscape we see today.
Source: Sev Hrywnak, DPM, MD
