Feb 16, 2024
Technology is changing health care for good, are you ready for what’s ahead? From the availability of patient data to the explosion of virtual care, technology continues to play a larger role in health and care delivery. That’s why it’s important to prepare for a digital-first future - with personalized care experiences that are connected, comprehensive and, most important of all, centered around patients.
The past few years have illuminated the importance of mental and emotional well-being to holistic health and vitality and altered the ways in which we live, work and receive health care. At the same time, technology continues to play a larger role in health and care delivery, especially when it comes to diverse data sources and virtual care options.
Personalized care experiences help to improve health outcomes, reduce overall costs, and connect care touchpoints for more cohesive, more seamless patient experience.
According to leaders from across The Cigna Group, the future of health care will not only be personalized, but also connected, digital-first, and most importantly patent centric. These changes have significant benefits from the health of employees and business growth.
Curious what the future of health care looks like and how can you ensure your clients are ahead of the curve?
Precise, predictive analytics will grow even more powerful. Data: Everyone knows it’s important, that’s because its powerful. However, while everyone may collect information, not everyone knows how to analyze it properly or how to use it effectively. So, unless its being put to work for customers in a decisive, actionable, and meaningful way for customers, data isn’t worth having.
Health care personalization requires integrating technology, medical claim data, patient insights, and clinical expertise. Predictive analytics tools, for example, can help identify individuals with specific health risks, and identify opportunities for early engagement.
Clinical expertise, coupled with data and analytics, aids in designing plans that help to mitigate risks and prevent disease, as well as treat conditions with precision. They factor in a whole-person approach, combining clinical and behavioral data with social determinants of health to enable truly individualized care that optimizes health outcomes while also driving down costs to deliver greater affordability and quality.
Predictive data empowers effective actions and drives growth:
- Identify members at elevated risk for high-cost conditions early in their journey
- Engage members in the right interventions earlier and guide their care to mitigate risks
- Prioritize interventions to optimize quality of care and promote saving outcomes
- Guide customers to quality and cost-effective medical ad pharmacy benefits
Innovation occurs not only at specific points, but throughout the entire care journey.
Virtual care and remote patient monitoring will drive personalization. For patients, especially those with chronic conditions, virtual care offers access to care when and where they need it. It also allows providers to engage patients in their real-life environments, giving them a better understanding of their physical, social, emotional resources and barriers. Technology also brings renewed attention to preventive health care that drives further personalization. For example, smart diagnostic and remote monitoring tools can look at patient-specific needs and inform individualized care plans and lifestyle recommendations that keep conditions form developing or getting worse.
Coupling virtual care with remote patient monitoring gives providers anther layer of information to make informed decisions about their patient’s care. By providing treating practitioners with complete view of the health and wellbeing of each patient, this combination of technologies also enables high-touch preventive and holistic care.
Health equity will reach an inflection point. Discussions about health equity are growing in intensity and impacts as social determinants of health continue to affect both accessibility and health outcomes-particularly for minorities and underrepresented populations. In their commitment to address affordability and access, plan sponsors are uniquely equipped to strengthen health equity efforts.
What is needed is truly unique experience built for, and wrapped around, each employee, rather than forcing them to navigate a broken system.
Meeting the diverse health and wellbeing needs of all employees will not only enhance their quality of life, but also improve productivity, control health care costs, and ultimately drive business growth. Predictive models, in combination with virtual care options, will continue to improve access and quality of care for all populations, including those who are more vulnerable.
Integrated care will break down barriers. Too often, health care delivery is fragmented, and data is siloed, leading to an inconsistent and generic experience. In the absence of true data integration, providers lack access to the comprehensive view of information they need to deliver personalized, coordinated care, while patients lack easy access to the right care at the right time.
Most often, patients are the ones navigating the system and supplementing care with disconnected point solutions that address individual problems but disregard the full scope of the care path. Addressing these issues extends beyond simply bundling together products. When employers opt for truly integrated benefits, data and actionable insights can identify customer engagement opportunities while fostering provider collaboration. Centralized care platforms continuously scan diverse data sources and identify risks in near-real time, enabling providers to make collective, informed decisions about treatment.
Cigna is focused on delivering digital-first, virtual-led, data-informed experiences that are connected across the continuum of care. By bringing together their high-performing provider networks and medical benefits management with analytics, clinical expertise, and personalized digital support, Cigna will work relentlessly to coordinate and connect end-to-end health journeys for all. Cigna can help employers design a future-proof plan to grow their business by supporting the employees who drive that growth.
Check out Cigna's News and Insights links below for more information:
Cigna Digital and Analytics Chief: Always-on Test and Learn Strategy is Key to CX Innovation
Discover Cigna Consultative Analytics Behavioral Care
Health Equity in the Modern and Diverse Workforce
Advancing Digital Find-Care Capabilities
Are You Offering Your Clients The Power Of Digital First Solutions?
