As providers seek access to health data to inform clinical care, an industry of data collectors and disseminators has emerged.
But some companies won’t last long unless they alter their business model to appease providers looking for analytics and clincial insights rather than raw data.
In the early stages of healthcare’s data revolution, access to data was valuable, and selling that data to providers was relatively profitable, three managing directors at L.E.K Consulting wrote in Harvard Business Review. However, stiffer competition, broader access to data from public agencies like the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Systems (CMS) and higher expectations from providers has placed more value on analytics and clinical decision support tools.
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The authors point to several companies that have already made the transition, adding that successful approaches often revolve around advanced analytics for specific illnesses.
“In health care, providers don’t want data, they want solutions that lower costs and improve outcomes,” the authors wrote. “[Healthcare IT] firms that deliver those solutions are the ones that will be around in five years’ time.”
Although third party companies have taken hold of this market, insurers are making efforts to transform raw data into useful analytics for clinicians, spurred by new value-based payment models.
Humana CMO Roy Beveridge, M.D., recently told FierceHealthcare he sees the insurer as a data analytics company "more than anything else." Earlier this week, Oscar launched a machine learning tool to get useful patient information in front of physicians.