Top Seven Healthcare Predictions For 2015

Finally using analytics to drive clinical changeAnalytics will finally begin to drive operational and clinical change. 2015 Analytics will finally begin to drive operational and clinical change. 2015 will see the industry getting past basic organizational and attribution issues and focusing now on how to use the analytics that have been available. They will look to change practice and referral patterns based on the analytics. They will identify and start to be proactive in reaching out to high-risk patients. The providers under meaningful accountable care finally have the time – and the tools – and the reason – to use the analytics in a more intentional manneanalytics in a more intentional manner.

The number of uninsured will continue to declinePublic support for thePublic support for the ACA will continue to be mixed, however even as general growth in the Federal and State exchange participation will be modestly incremental, because billions of dollars in federal money is available and millions of poor Americans are still without credible health benefits, states across the country will find ways to take ACA dollars to cover the disenfranchised poor under pilot projects” but they won’t publicly embrace full participation in the ACA.

Payers will make long-terminvestmentsPayers will strategically invest in retail health care – despite the Payers will strategically invest in retail health care – despite the lack of immediate ROI. The investment in consumerism will outpace the opportunity for another few years as the shift from defined benefit to defined contribution continues to take hold with employers. Payers will spend more money on infrastructure to support moving large books of business to private exchanges and direct channels. With strategic plans to move toward defined contribution.defined contribution.

Telehealth finally starts – smallSome payers will (cautiously) start to pay for telehealth physician visits, but the overall hype and investment around wearables and telemedicine will again outpace their utilization or value.

Personalized treatment plans ignoredWWe can expect more hospitals to embrace comprehensive patient profiles in the next year as a result of the wreckage brought on by Meaningful Use 2. Unfortunately there is a good chance these personalized treatment plans will be ignored by provider workflows as there are few incentives to start using them. Physicians distrust cookbook medicine in general and the challenges they have seen overall with the EMR means they are highly unlikely to “trust” or value anything the EMR has to saanything the EMR has to say.

Meaningful Use 3: RefocusedMeaningful Use 3 will be significantly refocused to reduce Meaningful Use 3 will be significantly refocused to reduce Meaningful Use 2 intrusiveness in clinical operations and instead focus on increasing interoperability. In 2015 we’ll see provider collaboration and communication increase but not necessarily because of MU, but because providers will be asking themselves “are we leveraging our investment in this technology in a meaningful way?