While the media focuses on the fate of Obamacare, outside the Beltway consumers are quietly changing how they manage and pay for healthcare.
If current trends continue, consumers will pay more out of their pocket for healthcare and use the internet and self-service web tools to help them get the best care at the lowest possible price.
But there remain big variations in how fast U.S. hospitals, health systems, insurers and other organizations are moving to give consumers more access to self-service digital and mobile tools to manage their health, health insurance and payments online, according to a new report from Internet Health Management and Digital Commerce 360.
The report—What’s Next in Digital Healthcare: Analyzing the data and trends shaping the future of web-driven consumer healthcare—is designed to help healthcare executives understand the trends driving web-driven consumer healthcare and how and why hospitals, health systems and insurers are building out their online and mobile services.
Innovative healthcare systems leading the way include Carolinas Healthcare, Cleveland Clinic, Geisinger Health Systems, Kaiser Permanente and Mayo Clinic and major health insurers such as Aetna Inc. and UnitedHealth Group. Organizations like these are investing in building digital and mobile healthcare websites and apps that let consumers go online to manage their healthcare affairs in a myriad of ways, such as signing up for or renewing health coverage or checking their medical records and lab results.
For example, Kaiser Permanente has poured more than $400 million into digital healthcare and electronic health records technology in the past decade. At UnitedHealth Group, the insurer’s Health4Me app has been downloaded more than 2 million times. The app allows users to locate nearby healthcare providers, and convenience care, urgent care and emergency care facilities.
Geisinger Health System, which provides care to more than 2.6 million people in 44 counties in Pennsylvania, has just updated one of its most popular consumer digital healthcare programs—a mobile app and customer service program that gives patients some money back if they are unhappy with a recent hospital stay or office visit. Launched in November 2015, Geisinger’s ProvenExperience app for Android or Apple devices lets a consumer rate a hospital stay or office visit. Unhappy patients so far have been awarded more than $500,000 in refunds.
But the pace of advancement of digital healthcare varies widely by healthcare segment—and organization, according to this new report from Internet Health Management, the leading provider of news, analysis and data on web-driven consumer healthcare and Digital Commerce 360, an information portal that also covers the impact of e-commerce on retail and business-to-business transactions.
Outdated computer systems, obstacles to sharing healthcare data, tight resources and cybercrime are among the core reasons preventing many healthcare organizations from introducing or expanding digital and mobile healthcare, according to the report.
What’s Next in Digital Healthcare: Analyzing the data and trends shaping the future of web-driven consumer healthcare is the first in a series of executive and research reports that are forthcoming from Internet Health Management and Digital Commerce 360.
Later this month Internet Health Management and Digital Commerce 360 will release the Digital Hospital 500, the first-ever annual ranking of the digital serves offered by U.S. hospitals based on metrics such as the number of self-service web and mobile features available to patients, web traffic, social media followers and other data.
“We are committed to keeping the healthcare industry—and the companies that supply the healthcare market with the technology and services that enable digital and mobile healthcare to happen—fully informed with timely research, data and analysis on the trends changing how this $4 trillion industry does business,” says Molly Love, president and CEO of Vertical Web Media, publisher of Digital Commerce 360 and Internet Health Management.
What’s Next in Digital Healthcare: Analyzing the data and trends shaping the future of web-driven consumer healthcare is now available for purchase.
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