PwC: Growing public appetite for healthcare innovation
As a number of policy initiatives aimed at extracting more bang for the buck out of healthcare costs are being unrolled and implemented, healthcare consumers are showing enthusiasm for the benefits that they propose.
According to a report from market researcher PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), 52 percent of healthcare consumers surveyed said that they would be interested in a value-based insurance plan compared to 35 percent who claimed ambivalence and 13 percent who claimed disinterest. Additionally, the report suggested that healthcare consumers are less likely to seek treatment due to rising healthcare costs with 46 percent of respondents claiming that they had postponed or foregone treatment in the past year.
Polling 1,000 U.S. adults, the findings indicated an appetite for increased healthcare value among the public and that there is reason to believe value can be derived through policy initiatives such as the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) program, which is intended to encourage hospitals to deliver positive patient experiences and produce better clinical results by withholding Medicare payments unless they meet certain performance metrics.
The report also pointed to a new requirement forcing insurers to report how much money is being spent on administrative costs. If insurers are spending too much on administration and not enough on healthcare, they’ll be forced to give their customers rebates, according to the report.
However, the report highlighted some issues for health industries in the coming year, including:
Insurer and provider partnerships: Insurers spent more than $2 billion over the last year to acquire or to align themselves with providers and there were also instances of large-scale providers acquiring insurers.
The survey results indicate that healthcare consumers are supportive of the insurer-provider partnership trend with 72 percent of respondents expressing a preference for comprehensive or integrated healthcare organization. Out of the respondents supportive of insurer-provider partnerships, 38 percent believe they lower costs and 36 percent believe they will improve quality of care.
Drug shortages: Shortages caused by quality concerns and manufacturing delays force hospitals to devote valuable resources to locating alternatives. PwC researchers suggested that hospitals alter inventory and tracking systems to prepare themselves for drug shortages.
Investments in Information: Information will play an essential role in providers’ efforts to create value as healthcare professionals learn how to better collect data and how to identify useful data. Sixty percent of respondents claimed support for the sharing of their personal information for the purpose of improving coordination of care.
Despite the potential for large databases of health information, PwC researchers suggested that its value will be limited in the short-term by questionable data quality, lack of scalable analytical tools, a shortage of trained informaticists and privacy concerns.
Privacy and security: The ability to digitize and store personal health information introduces a range of privacy and security concerns that healthcare providers need to address. Despite using modern health IT, many healthcare organizations have not developed security and privacy policies for its use even though, the report said, more than half of healthcare organizations have experienced a security or privacy breach in the past two years.
Health insurance exchange: As states develop health insurance exchanges in accordance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, insurers will need to learn how to navigate a new and unfamiliar marketplace.
According to the report, the health insurance exchange market is expected to include 12 million consumers and $60 billion in premiums in 2014, and 28 million consumers and $200 billion in premiums in 2019.
According to a report from market researcher PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), 52 percent of healthcare consumers surveyed said that they would be interested in a value-based insurance plan compared to 35 percent who claimed ambivalence and 13 percent who claimed disinterest. Additionally, the report suggested that healthcare consumers are less likely to seek treatment due to rising healthcare costs with 46 percent of respondents claiming that they had postponed or foregone treatment in the past year.
Polling 1,000 U.S. adults, the findings indicated an appetite for increased healthcare value among the public and that there is reason to believe value can be derived through policy initiatives such as the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) program, which is intended to encourage hospitals to deliver positive patient experiences and produce better clinical results by withholding Medicare payments unless they meet certain performance metrics.
The report also pointed to a new requirement forcing insurers to report how much money is being spent on administrative costs. If insurers are spending too much on administration and not enough on healthcare, they’ll be forced to give their customers rebates, according to the report.
However, the report highlighted some issues for health industries in the coming year, including:
Insurer and provider partnerships: Insurers spent more than $2 billion over the last year to acquire or to align themselves with providers and there were also instances of large-scale providers acquiring insurers.
The survey results indicate that healthcare consumers are supportive of the insurer-provider partnership trend with 72 percent of respondents expressing a preference for comprehensive or integrated healthcare organization. Out of the respondents supportive of insurer-provider partnerships, 38 percent believe they lower costs and 36 percent believe they will improve quality of care.
Drug shortages: Shortages caused by quality concerns and manufacturing delays force hospitals to devote valuable resources to locating alternatives. PwC researchers suggested that hospitals alter inventory and tracking systems to prepare themselves for drug shortages.
Investments in Information: Information will play an essential role in providers’ efforts to create value as healthcare professionals learn how to better collect data and how to identify useful data. Sixty percent of respondents claimed support for the sharing of their personal information for the purpose of improving coordination of care.
Despite the potential for large databases of health information, PwC researchers suggested that its value will be limited in the short-term by questionable data quality, lack of scalable analytical tools, a shortage of trained informaticists and privacy concerns.
Privacy and security: The ability to digitize and store personal health information introduces a range of privacy and security concerns that healthcare providers need to address. Despite using modern health IT, many healthcare organizations have not developed security and privacy policies for its use even though, the report said, more than half of healthcare organizations have experienced a security or privacy breach in the past two years.
Health insurance exchange: As states develop health insurance exchanges in accordance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, insurers will need to learn how to navigate a new and unfamiliar marketplace.
According to the report, the health insurance exchange market is expected to include 12 million consumers and $60 billion in premiums in 2014, and 28 million consumers and $200 billion in premiums in 2019.