Healthcare information systems vendor Change Healthcare has published its annual report on the status of the healthcare industry and on the expected challenges and opportunities awaiting the field in 2020.
The company's 2020 industry report underscores variation in willingness and preparedness among providers and payors to adopt value-based care, consumerism, and interoperability. However, providers and payors do appear to be in agreement on issues related to social determinants of health, tactics to enhance consumer engagement, and the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to improve healthcare.
Key points noted in the report include the following:
- Providers and payors are divided on value-based care and interoperability. The report found that 43% of providers use alternative payments, compared with 62% for payors. Regarding interoperability, roughly 23% of providers view consumer demand as the main driver, compared with 11% of payors. On the other hand, significantly more payors (36%) are convinced that regulatory changes will fuel interoperability than providers (20%).
- Payers are keener on "consumer-centric" strategy. At least 14% of providers stated that they have no consumer-centric strategy in place. In contrast, 100% of payors said they currently have or are developing a consumer-centric strategy.
- Providers and payers agree on AI. About the same proportion of providers (39%) and payors (36%) reported that AI and machine learning are improving consumer engagement. They also said that these technologies are having a positive impact on healthcare operations in terms of cost and efficiency.
- Providers and payors do not expect disruptive change. Most of the respondents foresee no significant changes to the U.S. healthcare system, regardless of which candidate wins the 2020 presidential election.
Change Healthcare and the Healthcare Executive Group commissioned market research and strategy firm InsightDynamo to conduct the research, which was based on responses provided by 445 healthcare leaders from provider, payor, and third-party vendor organizations in the U.S.
