Health Care Trends In 2022: Is There A Silver Lining?

All the medical loopholes associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have raised the alarm. It draws everyone’s attention towards the issues that people previously ignored. The silver-lining trend will continue in the year 2022. The innovations in the field of telepsychiatry and telehealth started in 2020 and considering the recent developments, which will continue in 2022.

The insurance payers are more likely to focus on the SDOH or the social determinants of health. Aside from that, they will also give importance to transportation, investing in housing, and all the factors that can impact people’s health, even though all these factors don’t fall under the category of traditional healthcare. The question is will 2022 be a witness to a silver lining in terms of health care trends?

Telehealth and Telepsychiatry

Over the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought around a revolution in the field of telehealth. Patients now look forward to living video interaction that clinicians and different health plans offer. Previously, through telehealth, one could have a live video interaction with a physician. In the present times, patients have a lot of options. The definition of telehealth has gradually transformed. Both the physicians and the patients can access a host of digital tools and interact through online portals, texting, and AI-powered chatbots. These chatbots offer personalized healthcare and support to patients. An evolution in the case of virtual care is something one can expect in the years ahead.

Similarly, there are many options in terms of online home monitoring. For instance, continuous monitoring of glucose levels, electrocardiograms, etc., is now possible.  Physicians will find the tools useful as they can decide what kind of treatments and diagnostic workups are necessary. And they can do this at lower costs. Companies are focusing on using technology to amplify the existing models of in-home medical care.

Few Other Improvements in Telehealth

Telehealth makes it possible for patients to access healthcare even if they do not have time to visit a doctor. Not only can the disease progression be caught well before time. But small health issues are something we can prevent before they become big ones. Besides that, telehealth can help manage any chronic condition and treatment adherence through simple and quick ways. This can happen through quick consultations with the physicians. The government recognizes all the benefits that telehealth brings, And that is a positive piece of news for patients everywhere.

Managing the Social Determinants of Health

SDOH or the Social Determinants of Health brings forth all those issues that are hard to solve on the surface. Organizations that have been able to amalgamate the analytics at the network level successfully are necessary to pick up the hot-spot practices with common sets of requirements with proper and detailed knowledge about community resources and partnerships.

Compensation is one of the biggest challenges as it is important to determine who pays for the health programs. Institutions offering healthcare should get more involved in strategic PPP or public-private partnerships with the government and non-governmental health programs if they are serious about addressing the issue connected to the social determinants of health. If they have to support the SDOH efforts, they need to ask for other necessary resources.

Disparity Gaps

The social determinants of health are related to the need to close the disparity gaps in healthcare. Efforts involving population health battle the need to address the social determinants. For instance, one must consider a very crucial aspect of society – racial discrimination. This issue has also had a role in building up disparity gaps in healthcare.

Racial equity should be of utmost significance for any health organization. To deal with the disparities, the healthcare institutions can look after the disparities due to racial discrimination and other factors within the medical facilities, clinics, digital providers, etc. There must be a strong and meaningful partnership with churches and other religious authorities. Even local politicians can also be of great help.

It is important to make efforts to build a meaningful relationship with community members who haven’t been served until now. Culturally aligned community healthcare workers would lead the way in 2022 and beyond. The construction of this model considers the environmental and social factors that impact health in some way or the other. That’s the biggest silver lining for insured Americans at this moment.