In the health care ecosystem, no one is staying in their lane anymore. Insurers are becoming providers, providers are becoming insurers and big retail brands are signaling their intent to disrupt the status quo. All are headed in the same direction: the ambulatory care market.
Increasingly, that’s where the patients are. As such, price and easy access are becoming driving factors in this transactional market, a trend that is already evident with aggressively priced imaging centers and telehealth services.
Such affordable, easily accessible services appeal to consumers and their employers—who look to contract directly with health systems for much of their employees’ health care. Here, traditional providers have an opportunity to become the chosen system of care. Health care providers must develop a strategic, cost effective and data-driven approach to knit a robust system of care that wins—and keeps—more patients.
Traditional providers must reinvent themselves to stay relevant in the face of added competition and an evolving payer mix. A key strategy will be to aggressively stake their position in the new battlegrounds of non-acute services. While this may seem a daunting endeavor, traditional providers possess an invaluable competitive advantage: their long history of healing and helping people stay well. Through strategic partnerships, a cost-effective supply chain and data-driven improvements, traditional providers can evolve into a robust system of care—and lead the health care industry for decades to come.
Learn more about the future of health care and how to drive change with the right analytics, technology and expertise.