With new regulations and increasing access to data, healthcare organizations (HCOs) have a lot to balance to keep pace with ever-changing consumer expectations. With an understanding of what’s next for the healthcare industry, HCOs can more strategically prioritize investments. As we approach the new year, we expect the following six trends to drive the healthcare industry in 2023.
1. Actionable Insights
With more healthcare data available in the cloud, artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies continue to provide greater speed and insights to analyze and predict outcomes that drive change in patient care. Though we see integration moving to the cloud more than APIs, the insights available through this technology will continue to shape the industry.
2. CRM Ecosystem
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms collect data from internal and external sources to create a complete profile for the consumer. For example, it can be set up to collect what forms a customer submits, what ads they respond to, and whether they call the call center or not. This information can also be combined with other known information.
Payers are investing in CRM systems beyond the call center. The self-service, network management, and care management components are all part of the conversation. And we expect investment in these components to continue to increase in 2023.
READ MORE: Ready, Set, Go! The 3 Steps to Personalization in Healthcare
3. Self-Service
Portal refreshes, including for patients, brokers, account groups, and clinicians, are prevalent in 2022 and expected to continue into the new year. Expanding self-service capabilities has become part of the brand experience and a driver of customer satisfaction.
4. Personalized Experiences
Personalized experiences continue to drive activity across the healthcare sector, with patients reporting a desire for their healthcare to be seamless, holistic, and easily integrated into daily life. This includes ease of communication with providers, availability of virtual visit options, coordination among care teams, and text messages and ‘just-in-time’ reminders, to name a few.
Forbes reports that “half of healthcare consumers say a bad digital experience can ruin their entire experience with a provider, and about one in four would switch providers for high-quality digital services.” As we move into 2023, personalizing the healthcare experience is no longer an option that HCOs can live without. It is a necessity for consumer satisfaction.
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5. Affordability & Cost Transparency
Higher quality care ultimately lowers the cost of care. Value-based care models incentivize physicians for coordinating care uniquely to each patient’s needs to best ensure positive outcomes. Mandates implemented in 2021 around cost transparency are continuing to drive payers to ensure their members understand the costs of procedures and care plans before they agree to them.
6. Machine Learning
Organizations across the healthcare ecosystem continue to grapple with how to unlock the 80% of healthcare data that is in unstructured form. Making this data widely accessible across care settings has impact on precision medicine, patient engagement, value-based care, healthcare cost reductions, and more.
Utilizing machine learning tools, such as natural language processing and text mining, can reveal valuable insights hidden in unstructured clinical data. Additionally, removing data silos, organizing lab data, and creating processes to ingest, organize, normalize and communicate data as actionable information is critical for creating meaningful data for patients, providers, and organizations alike.
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