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By Viviente Health Health News

05 Dec: 3 Employer Health Trends for 2023: Affordability Tops the List

As the world enters a possible recession and healthcare costs rise, affordability will be a key concern for employers in 2023, according to the Business Group on Health. Other top health trends for employers next year will be continued support of wellbeing programs and health equity.
“None of these are new issues, but they’re magnified and a bit nuanced in light of current events and where the macroeconomic environment is,” Ellen Kelsay, president and CEO of Business Group on Health, said in an interview. “That’s why we’ve really pulled them forward as things that we’re keeping a sharp eye on as we head into 2023.”
The Business Group on Health is a nonprofit organization that represents large employers on health and benefits policy.
Here are the top three trends the organization is watching for employers in 2023:

Healthcare costs

Employers will likely see higher healthcare costs in 2023, partially due to an increase in demand for care after people put off services during the beginning of the pandemic. A recent Business Group on Health survey of 135 large employers found that 43% have already seen a rise in medical services because of delayed care from Covid-19, and another 39% expect to in the future.
Additionally, cancer is now the top condition driving healthcare costs, surpassing musculoskeletal conditions, another Business Group on Health Survey found. This is because cancers are now being identified at later stages.
“During the pandemic, there were a lot of preventive visits and cancer screenings that didn’t occur,” Kelsay said. “So there’s a backlog of services that now people are going to get treated for and we might see some more late stage cancers being diagnosed, which are going to be more expensive and challenging to treat.”
In response, many employers are absorbing the increases in healthcare costs, rather than putting the burden on employees, Kelsay said. They’re also moving away from fee-for-service payment models to more value-based arrangements, and looking at their vendors to see if they have any duplication of services. 

More focus on health and wellbeing programs

Despite this increase in healthcare costs, the Business Group on Health doesn’t anticipate health and wellbeing programs going away for employees, Kelsay said. In fact, 65% view health and wellbeing as an integral role in their workforce strategy, up from 27% five years ago, the nonprofit found.
“We’ve had some folks say, ‘Well, gosh, maybe in a time of uncertain economic situations, employers might start to retract some of those efforts,’” Kelsay said. “We don’t see that happening at all. In fact, for a number of years when we’ve surveyed our employer members, they take a long-term view of their health and wellbeing offerings and really view them as … part of a strategic component of their overall workforce strategy.”
To continue offering these wellbeing programs, employers will be searching for partnerships that can provide high quality solutions and improve patient outcomes, Kelsay said. Many employers are focusing on programs for mental health, financial wellbeing and caregiver support, she added.

Efforts to battle health inequities

There are several key areas employers are looking to reduce health inequities within their organization, though it depends on the company. These areas include housing, food, maternal health, transgender care and care for neurodiverse populations, Kelsay said. Some employers are also looking to help workers living in rural communities.
“Different employers and different workforces might have different areas of inequity that they might be addressing,” Kelsay said. “But they’re very keen to make sure that all of their employees of any type of population or however they might identify have equal access to health and wellbeing services to treat their particular needs.”
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By Viviente Health Health Lifestyle News

05 Dec: How Nebraska’s HIE Is Leveraging Real-Time Data to Improve Maternal, Postpartum Health

Health information exchanges (HIEs) ensure the secure mobilization of electronic health information across organizations within a region. Each state in the country has an HIE, and some even have more than one.
HIEs, which can be public or private, are meant to enable more effective care that better meets patients’ unique needs. They have been around for a couple decades, but results are mixed when it comes to their success. The next generation of HIEs must think beyond the transfer of information and explore how they can use real-time health data to improve population health outcomes, according to Jamie Bland, the president and CEO of CyncHealth.
CyncHealth is Nebraska’s designated statewide HIE and prescription monitoring program. The nonprofit became a statewide HIE in 2012, Bland said in an interview.
“If you think about how people access healthcare, as well as the differences in electronic health records and how they have evolved over the past 20 years, what we’re really trying to do is connect data to the person,” she declared.
With CyncHealth, a person’s health information follows them throughout their healthcare journey. When it’s appropriate for a provider to seek their information (perhaps for treatment or a check-in), their data is available as a health history. CyncHealth also provides citizens with their longitudinal health information, according to Bland.
“Having data follow the person is important for patient safety outcomes, care coordination and just really looking at population health overall,” she said.
A key way that CyncHealth is seeking to improve population health outcomes is through a program it launched six months ago in Omaha to improve health and equity in maternal and postpartum care. Under the program, CyncHealth coordinates a secure data exchange amongst key healthcare stakeholders such as Medicaid, hospitals, clinics, federally qualified health centers, primary care providers, OB-GYNs and substance use disorder clinics. 
The program is designed to identify mothers and infants who are in need of care. The pilot identifies high-risk patients based on a wide variety of factors — including race, ethnicity, ZIP code and medical history — and it contacts providers so they can design a holistic care plan for their high-risk patients.
CyncHealth’s program for maternal and postpartum care also keeps providers informed about their patients’ real-time health data. For instance, let’s say a pregnant woman goes to the emergency department because she feels dizzy and is then diagnosed with high blood pressure. CyncHealth would notify all her treating providers to ensure they perform appropriate follow-up care. Interventions like these are important, as hypertension is a huge factor that contributes to maternal morbidity.
“This is a newer program, so we don’t have longitudinal data just yet. But what we hope to see in the data is that [adverse] outcomes — whether they be postpartum complications, or issues that could lead to death like in a pulmonary embolism or hemorrhaging after childbirth — can can be followed up on more rapidly than without this type of information exchange,” Bland said.
CyncHealth plans to keep this program running in the future, according to Bland. To measure its impact, she said the nonprofit will track how many notifications it sends to providers and how many were acted upon. CyncHealth will also look at how maternal mortality and morbidity data changes over time in Omaha.
This summer, HHS recognized CyncHealth’s Omaha program as one of the top 25 winners of Phase I of its health equity-focused postpartum care challenge. 
“That recognition is really just underscoring the work that we’ve done to build a broad health information network,” Bland said. “When you have that foundation, you can really start to improve population health because it takes a data exchange to be able to react more quickly to information.”
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By Viviente Health Featured Health Lifestyle

05 Dec: Virtual Reality: The New Tool in Healthcare Training

I don’t think anyone can really be prepared for their first time using a virtual reality headset. Technology has become such a familiarized part of our lives that I think its brilliance can sometimes be lost on us, but virtual reality has given people a taste of something they’ve never experienced before. Virtual reality isn’t a technology that simply complements our lives, it’s a technology that brings our lives into an entirely new reality.
It’s no wonder that virtual reality’s impact has been far-reaching. You can be transported to any corner of the world and feel like you’re really there. You can purchase movie tickets and watch a film in a VR cinema with your friends. And of course, you can play a huge variety of video games that make you feel like you’re part of the action.
So, what does this have to do with healthcare? While virtual reality applications don’t seem like they’d have much use in the healthcare industry, VR has proven to be a valuable tool in treatment and care. Medical teams have used virtual reality to plan out and practice complex surgeries, like a neurosurgical procedure, ahead of time. It’s been used as a pain management tactic to distract patients from scary or painful procedures, especially in instances where sedation and anesthesia can’t be given. It’s also helped professionals working in addiction recovery be more creative in the strategies and techniques they use to help their patients overcome their addictions. But another remarkable way virtual reality is applied in the healthcare industry is as a training tool.
Thanks to VR, facilities are able to create simulations for a number of different scenarios that employees can experience from a first-person perspective. Here’s how this is revolutionizing healthcare training.
A deeply immersive and interactive education
Medical professionals know that healthcare is a high-stakes industry, so they’re thankful for all the stages of training they go through to adequately prepare themselves for their future roles. Extensive classroom training, training in the field, and being mentored by seasoned medical professionals is all significant, but being on your own for the first time can be intimidating.
Virtual reality gives new doctors, nurses, and medical staff the ability to immerse themselves in real-life scenarios as if they were in charge. They can see the immediate consequences of their actions and can learn from their correct or incorrect behaviors. They can be exposed to dangerous or life-threatening situations and practice resolving each scenario without putting themselves or their patients in any real danger.
Facilities are always researching and developing new ways to enhance their training processes, and what better way to do that than to have new staff members immerse themselves in situations they could experience while on the job? This is how facilities can enforce self-awareness in their employees while creating more confident, capable teams. Studies have shown that experiential learning also drives higher compassion for patients as well. This is much harder to accomplish with more traditional training methods where employees can’t get regular, hands-on practice.
Virtual reality-based training has been proven to improve performance across the healthcare industry while reducing the possibility of fatal errors. Nothing prepares someone for the real thing more effectively than a program built to replicate real-world experiences.
New or updated equipment training
In order to continue providing the best care to patients, medical equipment must constantly be updated or replaced with new devices. With any new feature, there’s always a learning curve — except in healthcare, these learning curves can have dire consequences.
Training new employees on new or updated equipment can be extremely time-consuming, and facilitating times to introduce staff members to the equipment can be a headache. Virtual reality not only makes equipment training faster and more accessible, it also gives everyone an opportunity to practice using the equipment, tools, and technology as much as they need to in order to feel more comfortable before using it for the first time.
Higher staff retention
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the healthcare industry has seen an increase in staff turnover across hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and other medical offices. As executives find ways to entice their employees to stay, it seems like some of the common incentives, like higher pay and bonuses, are no longer good enough to combat record levels of burnout and fatigue.
In addition to their wellbeing, doctors, nurses, and other medical staff are also choosing to leave their jobs due to a lack of personal growth and poor self-confidence — both of which put patients at a greater risk of danger. Facilities must invest in the ongoing education and training of their teams, which will help staff members develop greater confidence and competence. Virtual reality exceeds the traditional training methods facilities often use, and this new immersive, experiential way to train staff members is critical for their proficiency and satisfaction. VR simulators have been shown to boost procedural confidence and develop technical on-the-job skills. Investing in your employees means investing in advanced technology that will allow them to perform better in their roles.
Virtual reality helps to build confident, collaborative teams that then create a positive workplace environment for other staff members and patients alike. Using tools like virtual reality to train the current and next generations of healthcare workers is another way executives can commit to enhancing the industry as a whole.
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By Viviente Health News

05 Dec: Can Hospitals Succeed in VBC and Improve Their Overall Financial Health? An Oxymoron, It Is Not

Value-based care has been viewed primarily as a cost-center to the hospital budget that requires upfront investment in the infrastructure without a guarantee for shared savings down the road. A risky bet.
And if you’re doing value-based care right, with greater focus and attention paid to preventive care services, it could result in decreased use of hospitals for acute care needs. Downright threatening to the very existence of a hospital system that is reliant on volume.
For these very reasons, hospital executives might shy away from value-based care.
And yet transition to value-based care is necessary and inevitable. If not out of concern for the out of control spend on healthcare, it is a necessary response and adaptation to the formidable market forces.
Consider these example shifts –

More than 50% of the hospitals saw negative hospital contribution margins this year with continued lower utilization of hospital services post-pandemic.
Greater than 50% of Medicare members are projected to enroll in MA plans in 2023. These health plans will need to hit their medical loss ratio (MLR) if they are to be successful. What that translates to, is a need to control costs and therefore a greater number of VBC arrangements that will be offered in the markets. A hospital that knows how to play in VBC will see an increase in the number of members they serve. And those that don’t will miss out.
Add to that, the relentless market disruption and competition from non-traditional health care entrants (Amazon, Walmart) and the continued market consolidation.
With CMS’s bold aim to transition 100% of its traditional Medicare payments to VBC payments by 2030, it will only serve to accelerate the forward momentum adopted by private payers

Collectively, what these signal is that ‘status quo’ is a regression move for a hospital system. So, how then is a hospital system to balance the simultaneous need of strengthening overall financial sustainability and achieving objectives of value-based care?
It is by utilizing the levers available in value-based care that are not available in the fee-for-service world.
How exactly?
It comes down to strategizing across three areas:

Leveraging data to achieve cost savings AND improve revenue growth
Creating ‘stickiness’ for members at critical points
Targeting and eliminating inefficiencies and waste

Leveraging data to achieve cost savings and improve revenue growth 

A big upside of a VBC participation is that you receive data from payers you otherwise would not. This includes data on use of services occurring outside of your hospital system.
Use the data to assess cost inefficiencies for services occurring outside of your hospital. And target those for redirection of services to your facility to win on cost savings and revenue earned. A double win.
What specialty categories is your facility cost-advantageous in the market? Start there. These could be procedures, imaging, deliveries, etc.
A comparative analysis may reveal that you are cost advantageous in orthopedic and GI procedures. Identify and align with those providers to educate and redirect care to your facility.
Patients win with potential lower out of pocket spend. Your hospital wins with new patient volume, and shared savings potential.

Creating stickiness (aka brand loyalty) 

One of the most critical, yet often overlooked transition points is your hospital and ER discharge process.
Patients remember the last thing you do for them when they leave your hospital. And if that includes handing them a piece of paper with instructions to schedule a follow-up appointment, it signals ‘we don’t really care what you do after you leave the hospital’.
It is also a big missed opportunity to share that their care is coordinated within your integrated system and their provider.
When you schedule a follow-up appointment before they leave the hospital/ER –

It ensures an appointment is made for timely follow-up (AND your hospital readmit reduction program will thank you for penalties avoided).
Eliminates the need for telephonic follow-up AND associated cost savings!
And gives you a golden opportunity to build your brand loyalty by delivering a key message.

What is the key message? That their care is better coordinated when they go to your hospital. When members go outside of your ACO network of facilities, you lose the visibility to coordinate or influence their care and outcomes.
Investing time and effort into this basic function is impactful on multiple fronts. But often overlooked, due to staffing shortages or availability of systems to coordinate it or due to a new ‘shiny object’ that seem more advanced.
Patients win with better overall care and you win their loyalty and long-term value for their overall care needs in the future. 

Targeting and eliminating inefficiencies & waste 

A common mistake that hospitals make with access to troves of new data is get distracted, enter a decision paralysis or tackle too many opportunities at once.
While conducting data analytics, target your cost savings opportunity identification for utilization that occurs outside of your hospital. This is your low-hanging fruit potential.
This typically is high-cost and high-spend activity post-acute care settings, use of high-cost drugs with generic alternatives, utilization of free-standing ERs, high-cost imaging facilities, etc.
Participating in a value-based care payment model does not have to be a win-lose proposition as these example strategies show. Through deliberate planning and focused execution, you can create an overall winning proposition that supports your financial health and keeps patients at the forefront of your efforts.
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