Rising Demand and Evolving Solutions for Population Health Management Leave Market in Quandary

Chilmark Research's latest report finds population health market evolving rapidly, leaving best practices immature and adoption of best-of-breed solutions current path forward

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Chilmark Research

Apr 07, 2015, 07:43 ET

BOSTON, April 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The increasingly rapid shift of patient risk from health insurers to healthcare providers is driving strong interest in modern population health management (PHM) solutions. Healthcare IT vendors are responding with an increasingly wide and competing array of PHM solutions, but none available today can fully meet all the PHM needs of a healthcare organization (HCO). Leading HCOs, taking the most aggressive position in developing and deploying PHM strategies, are following a portfolio approach by adopting a number of best-of-breed solutions to meet their PHM needs. This is but one of many findings in Chilmark Research's latest report, Population Health Management: Aligning IT Solutions to Strategy.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the single largest health insurer in the U.S., is leading efforts to migrate providers from the current fee for service (FFS) reimbursement model to one that is value-based (VBR). This has left HCOs with the difficult challenge of charting a course to VBR – which requires PHM models of care – while concurrently operating in today's largely FFS paradigm. With most HCOs struggling with severe resource constraints after major investments in electronic health record (EHR) technology, the market for PHM solutions is likewise constrained and HCOs are taking a cautious, stepwise approach to adoption.

John Moore, lead author and founder of Chilmark Research, states: "The rapid migration to VBR is unprecedented. In response, healthcare organizations are at quite varying stages along the path to PHM. We have found no industry-wide best practices for providers to emulate in enabling their own PHM strategy. Providers will therefore be highly reliant on strategic partners to help guide them on their journey to PHM enablement within the communities they serve."

While HCOs have a preference to adopt solutions from their leading IT vendor – typically the EHR supplier – Chilmark found most EHR companies to be slow in responding to this demand and lagging best-of-breed solutions. There is the added challenge that while the EHR is critical to PHM initiatives, this report found it unlikely that EHRs will ever be the core solution for PHM.

This is creating an opportunity for best-of-breed vendors to take the lead in providing solutions that address specific PHM enabling requirements, including analytics, clinician network management, care management and patient engagement. Best-of-breed vendors, as well as EHR vendors, are all expanding their breadth of capabilities in the hopes they will eventually become full-suite PHM vendors. Buy, build, and partner strategies undertaken by leading vendors will culminate in a complete PHM solution suite that is nearly comparable to a best-of-breed portfolio approach, but Chilmark forecasts that this is unlikely to occur until sometime between 2018-2020 at the earliest.

To compile this comprehensive, fifty-plus-page research report, each member of Chilmark's analyst team contributed sections that provide deep dive analysis into best-of-breed solution domains and their respective contribution to enabling an HCO's PHM strategy. The report further articulates how HCOs will be required to migrate their IT architecture from one that is primarily based on a 'systems of record construct' to one that focuses on 'systems of engagement' to support 360-degree engagement, which will enable all stakeholders to contribute to the health of a community. Cloud-based engagement solutions with strong messaging features will see strong adoption – others, far less so.

The report findings will provide strategic insight to all interested parties that wish to understand how the PHM market will evolve over the next several years. Healthcare organizations, healthcare IT vendors, consultants, investors and others will all benefit from the in-depth research that this report reveals on what is today the top-of-mind issue for all healthcare C-suite executives: How will our PHM strategy allow us to successfully compete in the years to come?

The report is available to subscribers of the Chilmark Advisory Service or may be purchased separately. For more information, visit www.chilmarkresearch.com/reports. Direct inquiries for purchase should be addressed to Sean Campbell at [email protected].

About Chilmark Research:
Chilmark Research is the only industry analyst firm focusing solely on the most transformational trends in healthcare IT. We combine proven research methodologies with intelligence and insight to provide cogent analyses of the emerging technologies that have the greatest potential to improve healthcare. We do not shy away from making tough calls, and are respected in the industry for our direct and thoughtful commentary. For more information visit: www.chilmarkresearch.com

Media Contact:
Sean Campbell
[email protected]
617.696.7075

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SOURCE Chilmark Research