2020 was a year none of us could have predicted or prepared for. For the healthcare industry, 2020 may well be remembered as an “annus horribilis” as Queen Elizabeth II once coined. Sadly, we are closing out the year with record number of hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19, even as a vaccine begins to make its way across the country.
While this year tested every aspect of normalcy, in the midst of such massive challenges, we also discovered glimmers of hope within the healthcare industry. From new tech advancements, to rapid medication production, to recognition of medical staff, there were some positive moments amidst the challenges of 2020:
Healthcare takes main stage – As COVID-19 began to take its toll across the globe, physicians, nurses, clinicians, and medical staff everywhere stepped up to the challenge and delivered care for the thousands who became sick with the virus. In cities across the country, nightly cheers showed our appreciation for healthcare workers, who are fighting to keep us alive and fighting against the virus. While the pandemic continues, we have discovered a renewed gratitude for healthcare workers and the lengths they go to protect our health.
Digital Health Goes Mainstream – COVID-19 disrupted traditional healthcare services as we once knew it. Providers suspended non-emergent visits and care, leading people to explore and discover new ways of living and working amid a lockdown, and digital health tools saw an increase in usage. With daily life upended, we took to using our Fitbits, Apple Watches, and digital drug companions to manage health on our own. During 2020, digital health tools saw an increase in use of nearly 50%. And with increased connectivity, more advancement in health monitoring and outputs, and the improved use alongside smartphones, digital health looks to support patient engagement into 2021.
As a physician entrepreneur with a background in critical care, I view the COVID-19 pandemic from a unique perspective. COVID-19 has compelled the healthcare industry to evaluate areas that are successful and those that must be altered to improve care delivery for both clinicians and consumers. This time of contemplation is an opportunity to move healthcare forward for the benefit of everyone.
In addition to providing many lessons for the healthcare industry, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed some particularly vulnerable areas, revealing five valuable teachings.
Five Insights from the Pandemic
The need for more palliative care providers: The pandemic brought to light the shortage of palliative care providers in America. Some hospitals reacted to the abrupt wave of patients by staffing palliative care physicians in the ED. These hospitals leveraged the experience of palliative care physicians to engage patients in goals-of-care discussions, enabling their patients to have increased access to goal-concordant care. Others offered further palliative care support through telehealth to bridge the gap between onsite clinician resources and demand. Palliative care will continue to be in high demand throughout the pandemic and moving forward, and there must be a considerable effort to encourage more providers to join the specialty.
A stronger emphasis on end-of-life care planning: COVID-19 has illustrated the importance of proactively initiating end-of-life conversations with patients and their loved ones to achieve patient-centric value-based care. It is also critical for these wishes to be documented in a clear and easily accessible manner, as the traditional way of completing advance care planning documents with pen and paper is no longer sufficient. Hospitals and health systems need to integrate digital advance care planning documentation into their EHR systems to ensure that these documents are available to all clinicians, patients and their selected caregivers when they are needed.
The fragile state of fee-for-service revenue: Many health systems still depend on procedures, imaging and infusions to account for a significant amount of their top-line revenue. While this pandemic is a particularly acute case, it has revealed the fragility of these revenue streams. Risks to an organization’s fee-for-service revenue, such as competition in the market, losing a physician specialty group and more, always exist. There is hope that the exposure of this fragility will drive further engagement in value-based initiatives – at the very least to help prevent disruptions of fee-for-service revenue in the future, but in the end, because these reimbursement models can provide higher quality care at lower costs.
The importance of prioritizing public health: Much more could have been done to prepare for COVID-19, in terms of preemptive and continuing investments in public health. Moving forward, the connected global community must prioritize preparation, so we can successfully respond to future public health emergencies.
Greater investment in supply chain infrastructure: COVID-19 has uncovered deficiencies in the U.S. healthcare supply chain. Though some health system executives tried to say the concept of just-in-time supply chain is not effective in healthcare, the truth is just-in-time supply chains can be effective during unexpected incidents. To be successful, they need significant planning and investment in supply chain infrastructure, and COVID-19 exposed some of these preparation shortcomings.
By John Danaher, MD, president, global clinical solutions, Elsevier.
John Danaher, MD
At the beginning of last year, we all had our own thoughts on how the year would unfold. However, a few months into 2020, we realized that the year would be quite different than we previously imagined because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With 2021 underway, we will continue to witness the digital transformation of the healthcare industry that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Clinicians were quick to embrace different types of innovative technology, such as telemedicine platforms and non-contact solutions to track patient vitals, that allowed them to provide patient care remotely. I believe that in 2021, we will continue to see an evolution of technology to assist clinicians and widespread adoption of digital health services. I also expect the industry will take key learnings with them as we move towards the future, such as the importance of building more trust in science and data.
Investments in AI are paying off
We have seen the impact of AI in the fight against COVID-19, specifically in the diagnosis and tracking of cases, predicting future outbreaks and assisting in selecting treatment plans.
I hope to see more infections decline as populations receive access to the COVID-19 vaccines and I see a renewed focus in how AI can help healthcare systems recover from the pandemic. Artificial Intelligence will be paramount in aiding many healthcare systems’ return to their regular operations as they were pre-pandemic. Artificial intelligence helps systems work faster to address the backlog of patient cases across other diseases and conditions that were postponed due to the pandemic, and deal with the financial strains caused by the virus. These tools can be used in revenue cycle management to assist with staffing, bed and device management, and provide a better understanding of patient utilization.
Artificial intelligence will continue to play a larger role as telemedicine tools and solutions rise in popularity.
Widespread use of telemedicine
One of the longest lasting effects of this pandemic is how clinicians have adjusted their delivery of care. The use of telemedicine applications is now a widely used practice, with the U.S. seeing an increase of 154% in telehealth visits in March 2020, compared to the same time period in 2019. There’s no doubt that the rise in the usage of telehealth services have benefited both healthcare providers and patients.
Mainly, the adoption of services has decreased the number of patients in medical offices seeking non-emergency care and ultimately minimizing the risk of exposure to COVID-19. While telemedicine will not replace in-person care, it will remain a necessity in 2021 and beyond. As patients are now more accustomed to the convenient delivery of care services, they will be more inclined to expect these remote services, along with other services, such as drive through testing sites and at-home delivery of prescription medications that do not require in-person visits.
By Abhishek Danturti Sharma, assistant general manager and lead data scientist for business transformation, HGS.
Abhishek Danturti Sharma
Health plans are all too familiar with the challenges of member experience—that perfect storm of call/processing volume surge, staffing challenges, and critical moment-of-truth engagement pressures. According to JD Power research, the stakes are even higher for 2021.
The organization’s fourth annual study found that member satisfaction averages dropped from 712 on a 1,000-point scale in 2009 to 701 in 2020. J.D. Power and Associates measures health plan satisfaction of 133 health plans in 17 U.S. regions in seven areas: coverage and benefits, provider choice, information and communication, claims processing, statements, customer service, and approval process.
To be successful, today’s digital-led member engagement must meet the needs of Generation “C” – the “connected” customer demographic that spans generations. These consumers make purchasing decisions based on brand reputation and a more personalized experience. A strong digital toolkit, containing interaction analytics; AI-powered data capture; and automation, will elevate and customize engagement to earn and retain these buyers. It may be counterintuitive, but digital enablers such as analytics, AI-powered intake, and bots can deliver a more empathetic, customized member enrollment experience—one that earns and retains customers for life.
Utilize Interaction Analytics
Interaction Analytics solutions offer key advantages along all consumer journey touchpoints, delivering essential ROI with voice of consumer insights related to preferences and experience enhancements to drive higher CSAT and NPS. Contact centers have a goldmine of customer feedback. Insights can be built from speech data that is a valuable information source of customer sentiment and intent. The data tells the unbiased story here – to avoid missed opportunities or misalignment of feedback. The proactive insights built at the crucial open enrollment phase are actionable by helping health plans to tailor their product development to consumer choice across key member demographics.
Apply AI-powered data capture
Today’s cutting-edge machine learning, optical character recognition (OCR), and intelligent character recognition (ICR) for cognitive intake have elevated the document management process once considered highly burdensome for payers. The open enrollment process is a touchpoint ideally suited to intelligent data capture. Open enrollment is a highly paper-intensive process that presents an excellent opportunity for improvement. With the inherent paperwork and processing, AI-powered innovation provides tremendous opportunity for workflow enhancements to minimize subjectivity of structured/unstructured data—for faster turnaround and cost savings.
Are the basic finances and operations systems your business used to use are no longer efficient enough? Maybe it’s time to think about adopting a more modern and more ergonomic Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system! In this context, one of the best possibilities available to you is to opt for Microsoft AX software, an efficient solution, the many advantages of which will optimize the main areas of development of your company.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the new business cloud-based solution that combines classic ERP and CRM functions with modern Business Intelligence (BI) functionality, Office 365 integration, and complementary applications designed to meet specific business and industry requirements.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations: a cloud migration for Dynamics AX customers
No more server rooms and heavy IT investments to using Dynamics AX! Since AX joined the Dynamics 365 family, a simple browser allows you to use all the functions and modules of the solution via a simple internet connection. Dynamics AX has transformed and become Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations. The ultra-powerful ERP with extensive features has joined the Dynamics 365 environment to integrate it as a functional suite dedicated to finance and operations.
The internet has been the greatest force on the planet to get vast amounts of information out to the public. However, its decentralized, leaderless structure means there is no gatekeeper to determine whether information is factual or credible before it is published. This is especially problematic for medical information, given the potential repercussions of following incorrect or misleading medical advice.
Many articles related to health on the internet are produced by content mills and individuals with no medical training. Even so, this does not mean that the internet is devoid of reliable health information. It’s all about knowing how to find it. Here are some practical tips.
1. Prioritize Health Search Engines Over Google
Google is the undisputed king of internet queries. No one can match the sheer scale of online information the search giant has indexed. But Google is akin to a fishing trawler. Whileit has gone to great lengths to improve the quality of its search results, it is extremely difficult for Google to exhaustively review the trillions of indexed pages for content reliability.
You can use Google and other mainstream search engines to search for health information online. However, it is best to do so only after you have exhausted other sources, such as a reliable health search engine or portal like MedlinePlus. Health search engines are devoted to medical-related information only and have taken time to provide accurate, proven and reviewed content.
What is senior life insurance? It is an insurance policy aimed at covering expenses that come with old age like medical costs, nursing care costs, remaining debts and burial or funeral expenses.
Senior life insurance for that reason, should be purchased to ease the financial burden that comes with old age, and ultimately, death. The insurance is ideal for those in retirement especially if they don’t have permanent life insurance or their employers stopped paying for life insurance after they retired.
Senior Life Insurance Is Not Necessary If:
You have saved enough to cater for your final days and burial expenses.
You have no credit card debts, loans or mortgages that will require to be settled before or after your death.
You have already made burial arrangements with a funeral home of your choice.
What Exactly Is Meant By Final Expenses?
These are generally funeral costs which include expenses on body dressing and viewing, transportation, casket, embalming and hospital bills included. Robert Schmidt of Burial Insurance Pro notes ” many seniors will use a whole life insurance policy, known as a burial insurance policy to address all of their funeral expenses. These policies generally provide coverage ranging from $10,000 to $25,000. At the time of their death, their family receives a lump sum, tax free payment that their family can use to pay for these types of funeral costs.
Cremation may not cover much expenses and it’s a bit economical.
What Life Insurance Offer To Seniors?
You may be wondering, what really constitutes life insurance for seniors and how you stand to benefit from it in this modern era.
Well, you are not necessarily the beneficiary of life insurance, but loved ones who are tasked with the facilitation of a decent send off.
Your loved ones are the same people who will make major decisions about taking you to a nursing home if need be, and settle involved charges. In details, these are the benefits of purchasing life insurance.
· Long-Care Financing
With old comes health complications like chronic illnesses and other medical issues. Most prevalent illnesses at old age include ALS, renal failure, cancer, stroke, organ transplant and more.
Your loved ones may also consider taking you to a nursing home if it happens to be the most logical option at the moment. All these expenses are catered for effortlessly when there is a term life insurance or a Medicare plan in place.
· Peace of Mind
How? Because of the fact that your loved ones will not struggle to cater for funeral arrangements after your death. So, much money goes into organizing and facilitating decent and modern burials, and a funeral life insurance compensation could come in handy. However, this type of life insurance is particularly helpful for seniors over 90 who can’t quality for a traditional plan.
· Debts Settlement
Death at times knocks when least expected but in old age, it is expected. However, you may pass away before settling debts leaving your loved ones with the task of settling them. Such debts could be medical bills, or estate taxes and loans. Part of the senior insurance compensation could be used to settle most of the debts, if not all of them.
By Mifan Careem, vice president of solutions architecture, WSO2.
Mifan Careem
In 2020, we’ve seen the pandemic accelerate the need for greater healthcare interoperability and digital solutions. Notably, providers that have offered telemedicine, virtual visits and other digital services fared better than those that have not.
At the same time, provider and payer organizations are now more focused on value-based care measured by patient outcomes rather than reactive patient care. Such innovations have been made possible by integrated data sources within and across the healthcare organization.
Too often however, the lack of interoperability continues to stifle innovation that would otherwise benefit the healthcare industry’s most important stakeholder: the patient. The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) Cures act and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule (CMS-9115-F) set to go into effect on July 1, 2021, aim to change that.
The new ONC and CMS rules, which target U.S. organizations, require healthcare payers and providers to provide patients with open access to their data and a secure data exchange between the different parties. As a result, patients should have improved access to health information. Meanwhile, the improved interoperability among providers and payers is expected to trigger innovation and pave the way to a newer app ecosystem.
APIs are key to compliance
Interoperability is a critical component within the healthcare system as records are digitized and must be easily shared between institutions and payers to improve the overall care of patients. The lack of interoperability is hampering the industry’s ability to transform and streamline services. While there have been attempts by the organizations including Health Level Seven (HL7) to promote interoperability and responsible data sharing over the years, concerns and issues with granting patients access to their data remain.
To achieve successful interoperability, healthcare payers and institutions must use APIs—specifically those aligned with the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards—to exchange structured healthcare data, such as those used for electronic health records (EHRs), digital health applications and patient use.
The CMS rule is designed to help simplify how payers and providers use APIs to drive interoperability and data sharing. However, as with all regulations, CIOs need the right strategy to implement the technology and steps to ensure compliance. As this is a new rule, there are no prior examples to follow, and if CIOs do not effectively follow a strategy, they may be found at fault on July 1.
There are four challenges that healthcare CIOs will need to overcome to ensure successful compliance and more importantly the transition to a patient-centered approach—with services delivered when, and where, consumers want.
