By Sara Heath
- The key principles developed as a part of healthcare’s shift to consumer centered and value-based care could be the very ones that will equip it to address care access during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report from PwC.
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As the healthcare faces the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, experts are looking anywhere for solutions to gaping holes in patient care access, the issue of a clinician shortage, and the public health crisis of community spread.
“The entire US healthcare system is planning, preparing, scenario modeling and collaborating,” PwC wrote in an introduction to the report. “It is grappling with serious questions around capacity, testing and equipment, including whether the nation has enough ventilators and protective gear.”
Some of these solutions may lay inward, as healthcare comes armed with tools it did not have during past disease outbreaks, such as the novel flu strain H1N1 back in 2009. Those tools, deployed alongside healthcare’s awakening to value-based care, may at least be a leg up in the fight against coronavirus.
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To be clear, the COVID-19 outbreak is like one healthcare has never seen before, and is putting a massive strain on healthcare. There are no clear solutions, PwC emphasized, but the organization maintained there are some key considerations healthcare can make in addressing this new public health crisis.
Foremost, healthcare should tap its existing risk stratification capabilities. Specifically, it should look at what it knows about the habits and needs of the highest risk populations during coronavirus – older patients and individuals with chronic illness, such as respiratory disease.
“Payers, employers and providers that are able to segment the populations they serve and can understand their unique needs and preferences may be better prepared to proactively and more effectively direct communications and services to high-risk populations,” PwC explained in its report.
“These organizations should consider taking a regional view within their influence networks, setting up outbound call centers and other tactics that can help protect the most vulnerable.”
Healthcare may also lean on alternative care sites. US healthcare enjoys far more healthcare access options than it did in 2009 during the H1N1 outbreak.
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Although urgent care centers, retail clinics, telehealth, and workplace clinics may have existed during the H1N1 virus spread in 2009, these alternative care sites have become staples in US healthcare. Organizations need to utilize them — especially telehealth — as it stares down an unprecedented patient care access problem.
According to previous PwC data, 77 percent of provider executives and 66 percent of payer executives said they are referring patients to lower-cost care options. And as healthcare continues to grapple with how to get patients care, these options may be considered.
In that same vein, they industry may lean on retail pharmacy. This will be especially important for individuals social distancing and who may be reticent to enter a pharmacy for fear of coming into contact with the virus.
Patients who regularly take medication, such as those with certain chronic illnesses, can benefit from the drive-through windows at pharmacies or home delivery services to ensure access to medications.
Additionally, a push for telehealth will help continue patient access to care while working to “flatten the curve” and hopefully curb the spread of coronavirus.
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Eighty-six percent of employers offered a telehealth benefit in 2019, PwC reported, and the recent outbreak has led to expanded telehealth benefits and offerings. Telehealth is also playing a big role in medical consultations, keeping specialists away from infected patients when applicable.
What’s more, telehealth can help address the non-coronavirus health needs of individuals who truly need it.
“It also may create more access to mental health services, and be a way to help prevent patients who already are struggling with chronic illnesses from deferring maintenance care,” PwC said.
Next, healthcare will need to tap into the community health partnerships it has developed to address the social determinants of health, a key trend that has emerged in recent years. Healthcare experts have begun to work the issue of social risk factors into their value-based care efforts, and now is the time to put these partnerships to the test.
This will be important for reaching the otherwise hard-to-reach patient populations for which many public health experts are most concerned. Community health partnerships and other social determinants of health services should focus on the trust they have with patients and then ensuring patients understand the COVID-19 risk factors and have access to treatment for the disease.
Finally, the US healthcare system will have to reexamine how it develops and manufactures medical supplies and tools.
“The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the US medical supply chain’s reliance on foreign manufacturing facilities,” PwC wrote. “The FDA is at the center of the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its choices in the weeks ahead could allow more companies to address critical needs, from diagnostic tests and materials to ventilators, but also slow down business for other parts of the industry.”
As noted above, this is not a prescriptive how-to list for addressing coronavirus, nor is it entirely exhaustive, PwC stressed.
PwC “will not attempt to lay out what the US healthcare system should do in great detail. Plans are being made and executed,” the organization wrote. “Rather, this report aims to describe six considerations for healthcare organizations as they make and execute their short- and long-term plans for handling the pandemic.”
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March 25, 2020 at 08:30PM
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