Population Health Analytics Software and its tools are in demand among integrated delivery systems (IDSs) and accountable care organizations (ACOs). Their medical staff can effectively manage panels with high-value data and advanced analytics during annual checkups and offer hundreds of thousands of patients the right care at the right time. Thanks to this, the organization has reported tens of millions of dollars in average shared savings annually for many years. There is also a significant relative reduction in the average length of stay (LOS) in a skilled nursing facility (SNF), a decrease in ED admissions, and an increase in both outpatient and home health visits, leading to a relative reduction in the burden on the emergency department (ED). What strategies do healthcare organizations apply to tackle such results?
According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S. healthcare spending in 2023 increased by seven and a half percent from the previous year to 4,9 trillion dollars.
The challenge facing providers and payers is to find as many opportunities as possible to reduce costs. It’s difficult because forward-thinking healthcare organizations push value-based care priorities, where quality of care is more important than quantity, and a strong focus on early detection and prevention. Organizations cannot balance the priorities of shared savings and population health, as well as support clinical decision-making, without high-value data and advanced analytics.
Clear and consistent ways to analyze data, measure outcomes, and improve processes within an ACO must be created. Population Health Analytics Software enables organizations to perform better, improve patient care, and succeed in risk-based contracts.
Challenges that ACOs Deal With when Carrying Out At-Risk Contracts
A healthcare organization may have a lot of claims and clinical data on patients, but this data is not standardized.
It’s difficult to understand how well patients are cared for and how effective treatment is at each of the organization’s medical facilities.
Organizations cannot use their valuable data and analytics to achieve strong performance in risk-based contracts, including shared savings.
Organizations may lack specialized tools that identify who would get the most help from care management and risk-stratify patients. These patients need preventive care and management to avoid serious health problems, but without predictive models, they are difficult to detect.
Features of Population Health Analytics Software for Value-Based Patient Care Policy Development
Valuable data and analytics tools usage, including predictive models, enables ACO to develop a value-based patient care policy and succeed in risk-based contracts. Business and clinical leaders can use analytics in strategic planning to identify opportunities for improvement and make data-driven decisions. Specialized analytical apps such as Population Health Analytics Software are useful for:
- Turning raw data into useful, reliable, and easy-to-access info which helps understand patient traits and medical services utilization patterns.
- Creation of a common source of valuable data across all disparate systems of a healthcare organization.
- Using a predictive analytics tool to generate a utilization risk score to better prepare for annual wellness visits (AWVs).
- Event monitoring for sorting patients into low, rising, and high-risk groups to estimate their risk of ED visits, hospitalization, 30-day readmission, or probably skipped outpatient appointments.
- Determining the amount of resources for care coordination for patients with AWVs and the level of utilization of preventive and maintenance services.
- Pinpointing opportunities to improve at any medical setting.
- Creating a model to forecast population health and financial trends using integrated claims and clinical data.
Organizational Measures While Implementing Population Health Analytics Software
The organization should continually collaborate with clinicians. They help create uniform standards of care for all patients and use the same criteria to evaluate patient results and quality of care. Clinicians participate in programs with other stakeholders (patients, insurers, providers) where risks and benefits are shared among all participants.
During strategic planning, the organization’s team for enterprise analytics works closely with others to solve problems. Their main goal is to create solutions that bring the most value.
The healthcare company works to make sure patients attend their annual checkus. During these visits, clinicians provide important health checks and take steps to improve patients’ health and close gaps in care. This also helps the company achieve its goals in value-based care contracts.
After discharge, care coordinators should communicate with patients. They specify which doctor and setting the patient needs to make an appointment with and ensure this. Care coordinators also adjust the treatment plan if necessary. This helps decrease the number of inappropriate visits to medical settings.
Healthcare professionals across institutions must collaborate to develop and implement data-driven standards of practice. Such collaboration helps improve patient care and reduce unnecessary healthcare utilization, such as expensive tests, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and 30-day readmissions. This results in lower per member per month costs.
What Are the Benefits for Practices Leveraging Population Health Analytics Software?
Healthcare organizations use high-value data and Population Health Analytics Software and give every patient the same quality care, no matter in what setting they are treated. As a result, patients recover better, and healthcare costs go down.
Stakeholders report average shared savings of tens of millions of dollars annually over many years. They achieved shared savings by ensuring healthcare teams meet quality goals and avoid unneeded waste of resources.
There is also a significant increase in reasonable outpatient and home visits because the majority of discharged patients receive support from care coordinators.
Organizations claim that the average length of stay for patients in SNFs has decreased significantly compared to the previous period.
Also, they report a significant relative reduction in SNF admissions per one thousand patients. Effective outpatient care resulted in a relative reduction of almost half in emergency department visits.
How a Healthcare Software Development Company Can Assist
Companies like Belitsoft that have expertise in medical software development assist leading healthcare data analytics organizations in developing strong data operating platforms and integrated analytics systems.
Healthcare software companies build data platforms that help collect, store, process, and analyze big sets of info from the following sources: billing systems, electronic medical records, lab systems, clinic management systems, and so on. These platforms help in:
- Automation of workflows such as cleansing, standardization, and normalization).
- Configuration of scalable data stores.
- Carrying out analytical tools for monitoring panels, reports, and data visual creation.
- High-level data security and HIPAA compliance.
- Machine learning and AI integration into analytics.
Turn to Belitsoft for expertise in development within cloud (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), data analytics, hybrid, or on-premises environments, data platforms, HL7 interfaces, data infrastructure, and workflow engineering.
