Homefront Insights

Now more than ever, people want to avoid in-person care, and meeting these demands means a massive shift in our healthcare system. Telehealth is part of the equation, but truly meeting the moment means robust care delivery in the home powered by technology. In March, we recognized the increased desire for telehealth services and extended our advanced home technology package including telehealth, care collaboration, and home monitoring tools at no cost to our network of 8,000 home health agencies.

Predictive analytics can save lives when officials understand their strengths and limitations. Many epidemiological models are indeed useful, especially when paired with an effective application into comprehensive public health policies. While all models will be wrong in certain cases, using them responsibly will drive the right outcomes for patients around the world.

The COVID-19 crisis caused major upheavals in all sectors of the economy, not least in the healthcare industry, where hundreds of hospitals abruptly canceled elective procedures and clinics furloughed or laid off thousands of employees. Many patients with serious health problems delayed seeking care. While many of these changes may be temporary, the COVID-19 crisis has provoked changes in the way healthcare is delivered that otherwise would have taken decades to evolve.

The option to heal at home is no longer a luxury: in the era of COVID-19, it has become essential. For many patients, especially those living in or near COVID-19 hotspots, home is not only the safest, but also the preferred site of care. During a recent Fierce Healthcare webinar, Melissa Carr, General Manager of Home Services, and Jon Terenzetti, VP of Data & Technology Transformation, shared expert opinions on the importance of home health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Outlined below are key takeaways from their discussion.

The pronounced impact of social determinants of health (SDoH) for seriously ill people during the COVID-19 pandemic is generating significant interest and response from payors, providers, and regulators in both private and public sectors. Taking an optimized, process-driven approach for resolving SDoH, Turn-Key Health’s Palliative Illness Management™ (PIM). PIM is an innovative, high-touch, home- based program designed to motivate patients and caregivers to be fully engaged in choosing and implementing a plan of care that optimizes their quality of life and results in treatment decisions in concordance with their goals, preferences and values.

Now, more than ever, health plans are focusing on making the home the center of health care. This is especially true for those most at risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms, including older adults and people with chronic conditions. And while we have seen a great increase in telemedicine utilization for routine, non-emergent medical care during the pandemic, our post-acute care system still drives too many people to skilled nursing facilities.  

At CareCentrix, we believe that better leveraging data, analytics, and technology will unlock answers to some of healthcare’s most challenging problems. In response to the current challenges introduced by the Coronavirus pandemic, the CareCentrix data science team recently competed in Lumiata’s Global AI Hackathon virtual event alongside 400 teams including public health experts and machine learning experts, engineers, and health IT professionals. The goal was to develop AI-driven solutions that better equip clinicians and healthcare services companies with the tools needed to respond both to the rapidly-evolving situation on the ground and to the long-term effects of the pandemic.