The world we live in today is not the same as it was ten years ago. As world leaders across all industries continue to navigate a post-COVID landscape, healthcare organizations and patients alike are faced with high inflation, increased drug costs, persistent staffing shortages, and more. We can never know for certain what tomorrow holds, which is why it is increasingly important to stay ahead of the curve by reflecting on previous years and looking toward the future for reliable patterns and predictions.
This week on the Beacon, we asked four Lightbeam industry experts to share their top healthcare predictions for 2023 and beyond.
Clinical Predictions for 2023
There is no shortage of transformation in healthcare. In terms of healthcare predictions for 2023, three major trends will continue to shape initiatives, utilization, and patient experience:
Critical labor shortages and the extraordinary demands placed on healthcare workers will continue to drive innovation for hospital and post-acute care delivery in the home. Greater beneficiary satisfaction, decreased acquired infection rates, and lower costs will fuel more and broader options to recuperate in home.
Complementary digital health and the benefits it delivers will continue its rise to the forefront of population management. Providers recognize the reliability and payers realize the inherent value of device-based remote patient monitoring. The 2022 expansion of billable codes to include remote therapeutic monitoring will continue to strengthen and pave the way for new use cases and clinical application. Device-based monitoring has its drawbacks, however; expense, ease of use, and reliance on broadband coverage limits use to only the highest of the high risk in a population. Deviceless remote patient monitoring is scalable, delivers rich patient-reported data, and is accessible in ways not achievable with devices. The renewed focus on closing health equity gaps and proactively managing rising-risk populations will propel opportunities in this area.
Consumerism will continue to shape the landscape of healthcare delivery. Price transparency, convenience, and member experience will further transform healthcare and preventive care delivery outside the traditional medical home of a primary care office. This will lead to greater disparate data and care fragmentation, but also apply pressure to organizations to develop loyalty and reward programs not typically seen in the healthcare industry. It will be critical to have an effective and reliable population health management system to understand trends, cost, and utilization.
2023 will be another dynamic year in healthcare that promises innovation, member-driven outcomes, and modernization of care delivery.
Shelley Davis, VP of Clinical Strategy
Healthcare Technology Insights
While everyone was quarantined in their homes during COVID lockdowns, we found very efficient ways to deliver care using technology that extended care delivery beyond the four walls of a clinic and reached patients in their own environments. Over the last year or two as well, there has been a lot of movement in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, which is maturing at a rapid pace.
My top healthcare prediction for 2023 is that machine learning/AI technology and remote-based patient communications will grow even more with the ability to deliver high-quality care and services in an extremely efficient manner. Using these technologies now and in the future, healthcare organizations could efficiently manage a far larger percentage of a managed population than ever before and do so with minimal assigned resources, which are currently in short supply.
Mike Hoxter, Chief Technology Officer
Business Insights for 2023
The future of healthcare in 2023 and beyond can be summarized in two words: health equity. I believe 2023 will be the year that determines long-term strategic leaders in value-based care, in large part based on which innovators embrace scalable health equity initiatives. Social determinants of health (SDoH) and accessible, equitable care delivery will be increasingly incentivized under various alternative payment models in VBC. Strong health equity strategies will also support the Quadruple Aim, improving patient experience, outcomes, and cost, while mitigating provider burnout because of better, more patient- and community-centric care.
As Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) pushes toward increased accountable care, particularly for the swelling Medicare-eligible population, affordability and care access will also require providers to re-think the education and delivery processes around preventative care and care-at-home.
Blake Marggraff, CEO of CareSignal
Looking at the new year from a business perspective, there are many opportunities for growth, improvement, and change. My top three healthcare predictions for 2023 are:
- The entire healthcare delivery system, including providers and health plans, will continue to struggle with rampant staffing shortages and professional burnout, creating more needs in the industry for care scalability solutions.
- Market consolidation and M&A (mergers and acquisitions) activity will continue, while many organizations will implement strategies to remain independent.
- Health equity will transition from a mostly conceptual ideal to an everyday function and initiative for those in risk-bearing arrangements where achieving health equity is incentivized.
Patrick Burton, VP of Business Development