A majority of healthcare executives foresee a return on investment in population health management programs within three to four years, according to a survey by KPMG.
Accountable care organizations and other value-based payment models are driving growth of this approach, which encourages greater collaboration and integration among healthcare providers and their patients, according to an announcement.
Twenty percent of the 296 survey respondents expect investments in health IT, data and analytic tools to pay off in one or two years. Another 36 percent foresee such investments paying off in three to four years; 29 percent expect it to take five or more years. Only 14 percent do not expect to recoup their costs at all.
Meanwhile, 36 percent cited preventive care as the biggest clinical benefit derived from population health management. Ranking second (23 percent) was developing evidenced-based clinical protocols to improve the efficiency of care, followed by managing chronic diseases (21 percent).
Only 24 percent characterize their own population health management capabilities as "mature" and 38 percent describe their capabilities as in the "elementary stages." Nearly 15 percent of those surveyed see their population health capabilities as "nonexistent" or in their infancy (23 percent).
Applications for population health management that integrate claims and clinical data will be vital to the success of accountable care organizations (ACOs), a recent IDC Health Insights report noted. ACOs also need workflow tools to support the creation and management of care plans and a communications channel to fully engage patients in their care, it said.
To start playing a more central role in population health management, payers must consider the provider contracting process as a collaboration focused on keeping patients healthy.
To learn more:
- check out the announcement