
Health Care Trends Expected in 2022
What trends might be expected for health care in 2022?
An upside to the continuing issues associated with the
Also expect continued efforts to address health care disparities. Disparities in outcomes and access are deeply rooted problems that lend themselves to a population health approach—but not to quick fixes.
Telehealth and Telepsychiatry
It has been almost 2 years since COVID-19 forced a
Jessica Sweeney-Platt, vice president of research and editorial strategy at athenahealth in Watertown, Massachusetts, expects virtual care to continue to evolve, as it expands from a reactive mode of handling sick visits to incorporate proactive, convenient, preventive care. This is particularly true for patients working with care teams to manage chronic illnesses. In tandem, wearables, which provide the ability to monitor health at home, will gain popularity.
Similarly, an increase in home monitoring options is coming online with on-demand electrocardiograms, continuous glucose monitors, and other opportunities for people to actively engage in their health care, reported Nina Birnbaum, MD, medical director of innovation acceleration at Blue Shield of California. These tools could help physicians better determine what diagnostic workups and treatments are needed, and potentially lower costs.
Companies are also looking to amplify existing models of in-home care with technology. A company called Heal is looking to bring back house calls; Papa Health provides health care worker visits and general help at home for lonely older adults; and Ready offers in-home urgent care visits. These are just a few examples of emerging categories, with some players overlapping and others defining entirely new segments, Seiguer added.
In addition, telehealth can enable a hesitant or time-constrained patient to access care conveniently and quickly, helping to catch disease progression earlier and ultimately prevent small problems from becoming big ones, explained Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of EmblemHealth in New York, New York. Telehealth also helps to manage chronic conditions and treatment adherence by providing simple, quick ways for people to check in with their clinicians.
More good news is that the government is beginning to recognize the benefits of telehealth and, more broadly, care that is delivered remotely and digitally. CMS provided reimbursement guidance for a new category of digital health—remote therapeutic monitoring—in early November 2021 that compensates providers for caring for patients outside of a physician’s office. Health care professionals have not had a financial incentive to ensure that their patients understand and take their medication completely and properly. These new remote therapeutic monitoring codes provide reimbursement for the kind of support that can lead to greater adherence, Seiguer said.
Tackling Social Determinants of Health
Expect a greater focus on analyzing barriers to care at the population level and then investment in community programs that can have the greatest impact on the most people as an emerging trend. Sweeney-Platt said that providers and payers both have obstacles to overcome.
“While provider organizations are driving these conversations—especially those who have taken on Medicare Advantage or managed Medicaid risk—they don’t always have the resources to build programs,” she observed. “Payers have also invested in these types of programs but have struggled with low adoption. This leaves a lot of opportunities for payer and provider collaboration.”
Experts note that
She added that compensation is among the biggest challenges: determining who pays for these programs. Robert Bollinger, MD, MPH, a professor of infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and one of the inventors of the technology licensed to emocha Health, said health care institutions should engage in strategic public-private partnerships with government and nongovernmental programs (eg, Medicaid, community/faith-based organizations) to address SDOH issues. He also said institutions need to push for more resources to support SDOH efforts.
The Disparities Dilemma
Related to SDOH is the need to close health care
- Prioritize the measurement of and report health disparities based on race and other SDOH factors within clinics, facilities, digital programs and among providers.
- Build meaningful partnerships with trusted community partners (eg, churches, local politicians) to enable patients to play significant roles in developing solutions that are meant to address these disparities.
- Make racial equity a strategic priority for the organization. Many organizations are emphasizing and implementing training, cultural competency, or workforce diversity initiatives. However, training alone is not sufficient. “Equity needs to be more than a standing topic for every C-suite meeting, leadership meeting, and program,” Bollinger said.
Along those lines, Christopher Dodd, MD, chief medical officer of PopHealthCare in Franklin, Tennessee, and its home care business, Emcara Health, said they deploy home care teams that include culturally aligned community health workers. “This approach enables us to build trusting relationships with underserved community members,” Dodd explained. This model, along understanding the social and environmental factors affecting health, helps to prevent serious and costly health issues before they arise, he added.
Ms Appold is a medical writer in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania.
A version of this article originally appeared with our sister publication
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