While 2021 doesn’t promise any more stability, incorporating the health-care trends borne from 2020 will be key in the year ahead, according to a new report from PwC.
Telehealth is likely here to stay. “With 95% of large U.S. employers covering telehealth, up from 56% in 2016, business leaders will have a say in how virtual care is used and how it should be woven into the healthcare system,” according to the report.
Real estate is another hot topic in the health care industry, as health systems are some the largest employers in a city or area, often with mammoth commercial real estate footprints, from office spaces to hospital wards.
“So, many of them are saying (they) want to reduce cost of real estate, maybe by 50% on the administrative side, but then put some more investment into the clinical side, the digital capabilities,” Gurpreet Singh, leader of PwC’s U.S. health services sector, told Yahoo Finance.
That finding was also supported by a recent study from Willis Tower Watson, which found that 50% of respondents planning to expand a center or add a new center temporarily delayed or cancelled those plans, and 10% accelerated onsite or near-site expansion plans.
Both doctors and patients are now more comfortable with telehealth, prompting a slew of new products and platforms that can provide better patient engagement, Singh told Yahoo Finance.
And while there’s more enthusiasm for digital services and telehealth, largely due to the increased reimbursements through the pandemic, Singh noted the experience is not yet seamless, and communication needs to improve. In a traditional doctor’s visit, for example, labs are scheduled and follow-up appointments are set up.
“In the virtual care world, that journey hasn’t been completely designed. So what some health systems are starting to see is some revenue leakage,” he said, prompting health leaders to work on configuring the digital experience.
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