How Healthcare Providers Can Prepare for Cutbacks & Consolidation

This past week, healthcare advocates around the world celebrated World Diabetes Day – a global campaign aimed to raise awareness and education around those effected by diabetes. A major part of this movement is empowering individuals to take charge of their health. Through monitoring devices, mobile apps, and wearables, nearly anyone can manage their personal health. It’s becoming so common place, in fact, that the tech market predicts nearly 4.3 connected devices per person within the next decade. Health and fitness data is already at our finger tips, and it’s having an amazing impact on the way we manage our health. So, what does it mean for healthcare providers?

Today, when Americans visit a healthcare facility, insurance pays for the services provided during that visit; in the future, insurers will pay for the effectiveness of treatment. Within the past year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have transformed the way they pay healthcare providers, by basing reimbursement on their ability to prevent readmissions. Such incentives have a huge impact on healthcare companies, like our client FMC who owns 37% of the US Kidney-care Market. In order to stay profitable, these organizations must consolidate operational expenses to receive greater reimbursement. Many are making major changes to their:

• Electronic health information, so they can integrate with local hospitals
• Staff, to include care management teams that individually manage patient health
• Accommodations for low income patients, who may have limited access to care
• Partnerships with acute-care providers to collaboratively aid prevention

The changes are costly, but those who are willing to participate will not only provide better patient care, but also allow For-Profit providers to survive the shift from pay-for-service to pay-for-care. iVEDiX helps these organizations gain access to their data, whether it’s through our physician rounding application, administrative dashboard, or facilities management tools. In the future, platforms like ours will provide a foundation for: uniting providers and patients, enabling disease prevention, and enhancing visibility for at-risk populations. The process is highly complex, but is driven by the simple need – to manage our personal health in order to prevent disease, rather than treat it.

How would you like to pay-for-care, rather than services? Let us know in the comments.