2023 Advance Care Planning Healthcare Outlook

The accelerating healthcare evolution fueled by innovation and demographic trends will drive activity in 2023. From where we sit as advance care planning (ACP) technology leaders these are the trends we’re watching and factoring into our development roadmap.

Continued financial pressure on healthcare providers.

The reality is for small rural hospitals to large hospital systems to inpatient long-term care:

• There aren’t enough nurses and doctors to serve everyone who needs care.
• Aging citizens increasingly want care and medical interventions at home, and
• It costs an enormous amount of money to sustain empty buildings on hospital campuses and in long-term care facilities.

Healthcare providers are looking to find better ways to operate more efficiently and effectively while capitalizing on consolidation opportunities.

Boundaries between healthcare payers and providers will increasingly blur and eventually disappear.

Humana has announced the expansion of CenterWell. Rumors abound that Aetna/CVS is making a $10B bid for primary care provider Oak Street Health. And, United Healthcare Group (UHG) is steadily acquiring ambulatory practices and clinics to add to its OptumCare division.

For healthcare providers, research indicates at least 200 hospital systems now have their own health plans. And in contrast to a historically adversarial relationship, payer and provider objectives are beginning to align and provide value to the entire healthcare ecosystem. A structure that must include patients and their caregivers will increasingly be the focus.

Baby Boomer impact on healthcare demands greater focus on what people value.

As Baby Boomers’ risks of medical emergencies and serious illnesses increase with age, their influence on the healthcare ecosystem will continue to grow, as will the demand for the system to focus on their needs, including access to:

• Social services around their living standards – Social Determinants of Health (SDoH);
• Advance care planning as a fully covered Medicare benefit to record their healthcare goals, treatment priorities, and care preferences; and
• Healthcare data interoperability to ensure all patient-generated information is available across the continuum of care, including in-home.

What is ADVault’s Outlook on Advance Care Planning?

Healthcare payers and providers use ACP to help close health equity gaps

A continued focus on health equity will shine a light on the value of advance care planning as a tool to both give minority and underserved populations a voice in their care and increase trust in the healthcare system.

More scrutiny of ACP claims

After an alarming OIG report identified an estimated $42.3 million in Fraud, Waste, and Abuse for failure to properly provide PROOF of ACP services performed for patients, we anticipate increased auditing of time and activity reporting.

Greater advance care planning software technology utilization

Both healthcare payers and providers will increasingly turn to technology solutions to support more meaningful, inclusive, cost-effective, and quantifiable advance care planning with their members and patients. Innovative use of technology offers tremendous opportunities to:

• Fill labor shortage gaps;
• Offer a seamless experience adaptable to all stakeholders based on their specific needs;
• Scale across large geographic and demographic populations; and
• Efficiently and effectively measure results and return on investment.