Population Health Management Strategies

Success in Population Health Management is, in many ways, tied to success in change management because both require adoption and buy-in to new ways of working with patients and other healthcare providers.

Why is Population Health Management Increasingly Important?

Population Health Management (PHM) has become a major objective and set of strategies for healthcare organizations since the beginning of the push toward more value-based care and related financial incentives and away from the traditional fee-for-service financial model that has been the foundation of healthcare reimbursement for so many years.

Population Health Management is also complex, multi-faceted and chock full of different paths and choices regarding how to approach, organize, implement and be most effective.

Balancing Data, Technology and Humanity in Population Health Management

Naturally, comprehensive and accurate data analysis and related technologies (including a variety of AI machine learning tools and predictive analytics solutions) are valuable to the implementation of a PHM strategy.

Data capture and analysis is obviously vital to any population health management program, and there are many increasingly sophisticated and AI-driven population health data management platforms that help healthcare organizations get a clearer picture of their patient populations on a granular level. But understanding data, closing care gaps and crafting proactive, early-intervention care plans based on predictive indicators does not, by itself, ensure positive results and impact on population heatlh.

Remote care and monitoring, multi-disciplinary teams across different care settings, social determinants, data analysis and planning to close care gaps – all these considerations, and more, are necessary for healthcare organizations to make a significant impact on population health. Medical devices, data and telehealth software platforms as well as many other tools are now available to help healthcare organizations succeed in managing population health.

But it’s equally important that the human connection between providers and patients be accomplished in an empathetic, two-way, very human interaction and conversations that foster true patient engagement and better health outcomes. For population health management to result in lower costs and better health outcomes requires patient engagement strategies and active participation by patients in their own care plans.