Reimagining Healthcare through Practical Innovation
Change Healthcare: a catalyst in accelerating the journey to a value-based healthcare system
Navigating the evolving healthcare environment is challenging, and organizations often struggle with where to prioritize limited resources. As one of the largest, independent healthcare IT companies, Change Healthcare is working with its customers and partners to pinpoint opportunities and make meaningful improvements for all stakeholders – physicians, hospitals, and other providers as well as payers and consumers.
As Change Healthcare approaches the one-year mark of its formation from the combination of McKesson Technology Solutions and legacy Change Healthcare, how has it moved toward its goal of inspiring a better health system?
NC: Change Healthcare was created at a transformational time in U.S. healthcare to bring together complementary capabilities for the delivery of innovative solutions. We drive cost, quality, and member/patient satisfaction advancements for our customers, employing a breadth of solutions that support end-to-end improvements. Our innovation, speed, and scope allow us to scale change and impact the industry, whether by optimizing care through medical guidelines, enhancing the efficiency and security of healthcare’s IT infrastructure, or leading the way in exploring next-generation technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchain. Because of our work with both providers and payers, we are increasingly viewed as a collaborative and trusted resource in helping the industry think through some of its challenges and knit together what is often a fragmented ecosystem.
What are the biggest hurdles your customers face, and how do you recommend organizations focus their attention?
NC: There has been increasing uncertainty about the healthcare environment over the past year, which makes it challenging for customers to effectively make short- and longterm plans. The uncertainty around reimbursement models, constant regulatory developments, rise in consumerism, and shift away from inpatient care all create pressure, but they also create opportunities. At the same time, providers and payers are using data and analytics to create an efficient and informed system that can not only respond to sick patients, but also proactively partner with individuals to improve their overall health.
To weather these dynamics, healthcare entities must be agile and proactive during periods of uncertainty and take both a short- and long-term view when investing. This may mean investing in capabilities needed for the future, even if the immediate reimbursement effects are unclear or perhaps even negative. For example, patient and member engagement is essential due to increasing consumerism and the drive toward population health, but it may take time to see the financial benefits.
An important part of being agile is fostering a culture that embraces new ideas and supports rapidly testing them. Every organization needs to learn how to “fail fast.” Support for innovation at this level has not always existed in healthcare, yet it’s something we all need to develop given the ongoing change, and speed of that change, in our industry.
Where is the company prioritizing and investing in technologies to advance healthcare?
NC: The evolution of healthcare drivers coupled with revolutionary advancements in technology are creating fertile ground for disruptive innovation. Many new entrants are bringing fresh perspectives to longstanding challenges. For instance, blockchain—and the work Change Healthcare is doing to apply this technology’s capabilities—has the potential to improve auditability and efficiency.When we started working with this technology, people were unsure of its scalability. However, we have uncovered ways that blockchain can handle billions of transactions and do so in a manner that respects healthcare’s need for immutability, transparency, accuracy, and efficiency.
When you look back five years from now, how will you measure success?
NC: We, the nearly 15,000 team members of Change Healthcare, will consider ourselves successful when, with our help, our customers and partners are exceeding their patients’, members’, and other customers’ needs while improving quality and moderating cost increases. Recently it was estimated that healthcare costs in the United States will increase 5.5% per year through 2026, reaching almost a fifth of the U.S. GDP. As we help our customers achieve their goals, they and their customers will be able to take money being spent on the administrative aspects of the delivery system and apply it to keeping people healthy or returning them to health.