The year 2021 was a rough year, especially for the healthcare industry. For healthcare providers COVID-19 made a radical shift in the type of care and type of patients that are commonly visiting healthcare providers. Elective procedures and routine health checkups have largely been deferred because of the global pandemic. Former revenue centers have become major cost centers. As operating costs of facilities and skilled staff has remained largely unchanged while patient demand has rapidly declined.
With an influx of COVID-19 patients this has stressed the traditional working model of most hospital systems as high rates of exposure have resulted in high rates of COVID-19 infections among both frontline healthcare providers and support staff. This disruption of the working model has created both financial pressures and staffing challenges for healthcare providers and we anticipate this will drive most of the AI focus in this space.
To account for the local impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital systems have begun using forecasting techniques and disease-severity modeling to predict the influx of COVID-19 patients and even to anticipate the level of care needed for patients. Aside from COVID-19 specific AI use cases to account for challenges in staffing. This could include forecasting staffing needs, predicting skilled provider absences given the high COVID-19 infection rates among providers and a focus on staffing retention to avoid burnout and attribute.
Every year businesses across all industries try to understand where the market is moving. The year 2020 was no exception and perhaps requires this type of forward thinking more than ever. Even though 2020 was unpredictable to say the least, those in the health benefits industry have an opportunity to take its challenges and turn them into positives for the coming years.
Consumer engagement gap will continue to shrink healthcare expenses and become more like retirement where the responsibility falls on the consumer. The challenge is that 88% of consumers don’t know how to best save and spend on their healthcare and that hasn’t changed much over the past 5-10 years. The premise of healthcare consumers will feel empowered to make better choices that lead to improved health outcomes and decrease costs. Although, for this strategy to work, consumers need the right education, tools, and technology. With more people working from home and the healthcare system forced to change how it delivers care due to COVID-19, we have seen administrators invest in tools and technology like never before. Also, consumers are more focused on their health care and more willing to use technology.
Rise in more flexible coverage and ICHRAs. Employer-sponsored insurance is a tradition left over from the World War 2 days and the job market has significantly changed since then. Decoupling jobs from healthcare coverage can make sense given the realities of today’s workforce and many consumers agree. A recent survey found that 41% of consumers think that health insurance should be decoupled from employment. This practice has benefits for both employers and consumers, so it is truly a win/win. Individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement (ICHRA) is also becoming popular. This is a plan that will allow employers to designate a set dollar amount for employees at the start of the year that they can use to get a healthcare plan of their choosing in the marketplace or to pay for out-of-pocket healthcare costs.Some experts and clinicians have given their prediction to help everyone plan and prepare for a better year and beyond 2021. Here is what they have found.
Data use and artificial intelligence will be more important as ever. Healthcare data – everything from electronic medical records to socio-economic data became even more critical in 2020. Data interoperability and artificial intelligence will be the main focuses in 2021 and beyond, according to John Langton, PhD, Director of Applied Data Science, Wolters Kluwer, Health and Karen Kobelski, Vice President and General Manager of Clinical Surveillance Compliance & Data Solutions, Wolters Kluwer, Health.
Read the full article here: https://www.softwaretoolsreview.com/post/what-healthcare-will-look-like-in-2021-and-beyond
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