5 Population Health Trends to Watch

With value-based payment arrangements becoming more common and the growth in Medicaid managed care and Medicare Advantage, population health has become a business — and a competitive one at that.

A combination of technologies and remote monitoring will be used to reduce hospital stays. This will make inpatient hospital stays more effective and improve care coordination between inpatients, outpatients, and primary care providers. It will also make patients happier and decrease the cost of care through reduced length of stays, in Gleeson’s view.

It has become a somewhat tired truism of the COVID-19 pandemic that it has laid bare U.S. healthcare disparities. The pandemic has disproportionately affected Black Americans, and Whites have been disproportionately vaccinated so far. Healthcare providers understand the need to identify social factors that threaten health and wellness and to partner with community agencies to help get patients’ needs met, observes Kaminski.