2022 Predictions for Telehealth and the Digital Front Door

As we head into 2022, we asked the Healthcare IT Today community to share some predictions for the new year.  I always find it interesting to learn what people think is coming down the road.

One of the hottest topics out there right now it telehealth and the new digital front door.  These terms have a lot of different meanings to a lot of different people, but there’s consensus that understanding this topic is going to be important for every healthcare organization.  The embrace of virtual care is real, but knowing how to do it effectively is still a major topic of discussion.  Hopefully these predictions help you plan effectively.

Here’s a look at some of the 2022 telehealth and digital front door predictions we received:

Julian Flannery, CEO & Founder at Summus Global
Virtual Care 2.0: virtual care is evolving rapidly and will encompass more than just primary care in 2022 as patients need more tailored healthcare journeys.

Emphasis on Restoring the Human Element in Healthcare: matching virtual care with human needs will bring a new care model: personalized, customized and easy to make progress and to take steps toward better health.

Prioritizing User Access: With the U.S. physician shortage growing, access will play a big role in 2022 as patients struggle to make appointments with their doctors. The new frontier of virtual care is all about access and technology that empowers, in days, a direct connection to world-class specialists. A McKinsey & Company report indicates telehealth use has increased 38X from the pre-COVID-19 baseline.

Zach Zettler, President at Updox
The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly shaken up the healthcare industry. New tools and technologies were quickly implemented by providers in an effort to provide care virtually, which naturally shifted patient expectations and accelerated the consumerism of healthcare.

Looking ahead, the personalization of health tech will further increase, and patients will demand even more convenient communication options and user-friendly healthcare technology as they seek to interact more directly and build deeper relationships with their providers.

The digital front door will create a gateway for patients, with tools like electronic forms, virtual waiting rooms and more telehealth appointment options, being implemented more and more by practices in 2022, as providers seek to further adjust to the specific needs of their patient populations in order to improve patient engagement and satisfaction.

TJ Elbert, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Data at Health Catalyst
The care model continues to extend outside the health system. The US Health System was starting to adopt telehealth as an alternative to increase access to care even prior to COVID-19, but the pandemic has made telehealth an essential piece of the care model. This trend will continue over the next year and with it the need for a data strategy that incorporates new IoT, Patient Portal, and wearables data as well as the governance and orchestration required to incorporate this data into the patients care.

Andria Jacobs, RN, MS, CEN, CPHQ, Chief Operating Officer at PCG Software
After the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, CMS proposed to make telehealth a more prominent part of health care services. Fast forward to present day, and CMS has released the 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule, extending the telehealth services expansion.

While this is a help for many patients, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced criminal charges against 138 defendants for alleged healthcare fraud schemes, which resulted in $1.4 billion in losses. In 2022, health care fraud will continue to be central to rising health care costs.

Effective January 2022, the No Surprises Act is designed to protect consumers by restricting excessive out of pocket costs from surprise billing. While many states have tried to address this problem, we’ve seen a large gap in consumer protection. According to InstaMed’s Trends in Healthcare Payments Eleventh Annual Report, 80% of consumers were surprised by a medical bill.

As patients have greater responsibility for out of pocket costs, they will exert more choice in their health care decisions based on costs in 2022.

Adnan Iqbal, CEO at Luma Health
Value-based care with digital options will continue to grow. More innovative models of healthcare that provide better and more cost-effective care will emerge in 2022. Payers and providers will continue the trend toward value-based care, focusing on helping patients manage chronic conditions and maintain better outcomes throughout their health journey at lower cost.

For example, an employer like GM or Ford that could have spent more in the past on employee healthcare than on all its raw materials might see an alternative model as a way to retain staff, keep them well, and also improve margins. Technology can play a major role in the expansion of value-based care or programs that care for patients beyond the walls of the hospital.

Telehealth has declined from its pre-pandemic peak, but a significant percentage of patients still use it and even prefer it to in-person care. A digital front door that combines telehealth and the ability for patients to report health outcomes is key for providers to understand a patient’s health before and after their visits.

For example, giving postpartum patients the ability to quickly and easily report daily symptoms during the “fourth trimester” can help providers identify concerning signs before a more serious complication develops.

John Zimmerer, Vice President of Health Care Marketing of Smart Communications
Healthcare consumers’ preferences have shifted digitally during Covid. In fact, members and patients now value easy digital interactions above the cost of healthcare! They now expect to be guided through critical processes via engaging digital experiences. Yet, customer satisfaction continues to remain low and impacts the customer experience.

I believe in 2022, healthcare organizations will race to refine digital processes to provide connected, guided experiences for better customer satisfaction and outcomes.

Dedi Gilad, CEO and Co-Founder at TytoCare
Telehealth use has stabilized at levels 38 times higher than before the pandemic. In 2022, as the telehealth industry continues to advance, telehealth usage will become more prevalent than ever before, being used across broader applications such as chronic care, preventative care, longitudinal care, and primary care, in addition to urgent care.

Through increased usage of AI technologies that enable better remote diagnoses and guided medical examinations from the comfort of patient’ homes, to remote patient monitoring, to schools and employers implementing telehealth solutions to offer students and employees faster and better access to doctors who can diagnose and prescribe remotely, telehealth usage will shift from being used mainly for urgent care to being part of maintaining a healthy life.

Telehealth will continue to aid patients in creating meaningful connections with physicians outside of clinical settings, turning reactive care into proactive care.

Prashant Warier, CEO and Co-Founder at Qure.ai
Telemedicine has gone from a desirable alternative to an absolute necessity for ensuring timely and safe healthcare in the face of COVID. As a result of the increased demand, telemedicine has become an increasingly important aspect of patient care, particularly in diagnosis.

However, there is a risk that results that might otherwise be discovered during an in-person visit may not be captured during a telediagnosis session. This is one of the instances where artificial intelligence (AI) can play a significant role in accurate and timely diagnosis and treatment. With AI support, there is less likelihood of misdiagnosis and underdiagnosis. I believe telemedicine will continue to play an important role, bridging the gaps in care provision with AI tools that provide an extra layer of confidence for physicians.

If you have other predictions you’d like to share, do so in the comments so we can all learn from each other.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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