The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has begun in recent months Reimagine the digital health landscapeearly efforts focused primarily on improving the ability to acquire beneficiaries through technology and empower them. As part of this mission, CMS convened a dedicated team to rethink how the federal government provides health care digitally Public Information Request (RFI) was issued Explore new ways the institution can use technology to support health insurance beneficiaries.
These promising first-step signals indicate that CMS, as well as the wider healthcare field, recognizes the need for smarter, patient-centered infrastructure. But they also ask the tricky question: What does it take to really turn health care into a patient-centric system? Is it possible? Can federal health programs develop to bring meaningful value to patients while ensuring operational sustainability for providers and governments?
At the heart of this shift is the necessary shift in how we define the way healthcare is successful. Historically, access to care has been seen as the ultimate goal, based on the assumption that patients will provide planning options, online portals and digital health records will automatically lead to improved results. However, one of them Continuous Challenges in the U.S. Healthcare Systemespecially for those on federally funded healthcare programs, there is poor patient engagement. Access alone cannot be converted into an action. Just because patients have insurance coverage and use digital tools to visit doctors and stay healthy doesn’t mean they will.
Even with increased connectivity, participation remains low. The patient is still slipping in the cracks, exacerbating the stress on an already burdened system. One study estimates as much as possible 50% of patients are unable to follow the medicationresulting in at least 100,000 preventable deaths and $100 billion in avoidable medical expenses each year. But poor patient participation is not only a financial burden that we must overcome. This is an imminent threat to the ability to provide quality care to our healthcare system.
There is no shortage of data and tools on the market, so the root cause of this problem is not enough to lack digital infrastructure. This is the misalignment between the tools that have been constructed and the tools that patients really need to motivate and motivate to leverage these tools. The solution lies in investing in personalized technologies that integrate seamlessly with these tools to help optimize their use.
As someone who has spent years developing and building adaptive systems, I know firsthand that a suitable approach doesn’t work. Patient participation and outreach today are very versatile. We continue to treat patients’ large demographics in the same way that cannot address everyone’s unique health journey, beliefs, and evolving needs. What prompted me to schedule a date with a doctor might be very different from what prompted my wife, friends, or strangers at the grocery store. However, by leveraging one-to-one personalization of behavioral science and AI, we can better recognize these differences and tailor communication and advocacy accordingly.
By customizing and tuning each patient interaction, we can help individuals take meaningful actions that greatly improve their overall health and well-being. This may involve sending text to Untouched diabetes patients, encourage them to schedule appointments with primary care providers using language and images that resonate with them. Or it could mean sending regular reminders to patients who often miss dates. These small targeted interactions are the kind that drives long-term value, suggesting that earlier, continuous personalized communication leads to better health outcomes, lowers care costs and creates a more effective healthcare system.
Transforming and re-tuning our healthcare system to prioritize patients cannot be achieved by simply increasing the number of platforms or data sources available. We must build systems that motivate and encourage patients to utilize the systems they already have available.
We need to adopt a federally driven program to leverage AI to support patients along with behavioral science. If the modernization efforts of CMS no longer expand access to care, we will not be able to reach the full potential of our system. The future of Medicare and public health depends broadly on our ability to sustainably bridge the gap between availability and action. Now it’s time to do so.
