The transition from fee-for-service to value-based healthcare affects everyone, from payers to patients to employers. While this transition opens up complex healthcare challenges, technology companies are viewing it as an opportunity to deliver valuable solutions that can solve these challenges.
For example, using the latest database technology, companies are mining patient data records to predict which patients are at risk for developing a disease, such as in-hospital sepsis, a bacterial infection that kills millions per year.
Payers (insurance companies) and providers (hospitals and hospital groups) are leading the way in adopting new technologies that will help physicians transition from charging for office visits (fee-for-service) to charging based on the value of the services they provide for patients (value-based care).
The roadblocks standing in the way of the transition to value-based care are many, and most are based on physician, provider and payers’ willingness and capability to adopt and implement new technologies that, in their experience, they think will be difficult to support from an IT infrastructure standpoint.
Implementing the very same systems that payers and providers fear will cause stress, will in fact bring relief to the IT systems and the people that are overburdened. For example, big data companies like Altiscale are advancing precision medicine by helping providers determine optimal treatments based on genetic information, molecular analysis, environmental factors and statistical clustering.
As healthcare organizations navigate this transition, technology will play a key role in making it smooth and effective. Check back soon to see how technology can ease the transition.