Healthcare’s Next Steps to Opening the Digital Front Door

In primary care, chronic disease management has fallen by the wayside, while preventive screenings have also gone down. That has not only been a financial hit for primary care clinics, but it has also set the medical system up of a whole deal of trouble should any chronically ill or rising risk patients face an acute problem not related to COVID-19.

In emergency care, too, providers have seen a downtick in utilization, and contrary to previous cost-cutting goals, this isn’t a good thing. Patients who are experiencing serious health symptoms, like signs of heart attack or stroke, are attempting to ride out their episodes at home. Knight pointed out that deaths at home have been on the rise as a result.

Clinicians, too, are more open to virtual care access, largely because the regulatory and reimbursement environment also adapted to meet that terrified consumer's needs.