Better Health 2022 Healthcare Predictions

2021 was an unprecedented year for digital health, between regulators, payors and providers, we have made tremendous progress in adopting new technologies to improve patient care. Our own first hand experience with payers and providers demonstrated how eager they became to adopt better solutions that support patients staying outside of the hospital. Reflecting on 2021 inspired us to share our predictions for the themes we will see in healthcare in 2022.

1. Preference for home-based healthcare services: The coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown exacerbated the need for quality home-based healthcare services, particularly for vulnerable populations like the elderly. We anticipate that we’ll see continued focus on community-based care services for acute, post-acute, and end-of-life services. More providers will offer home-based care services, especially as advances in technology and policy reforms enable greater opportunities to expand homecare offerings, such as telehealth, virtual support, and home delivery of medications and essential supplies.
2. A greater focus on previously underserved populations: The commoditization of telehealth has begun to support the development of specialized, vertically focused solutions serving previously underserved populations, such as Medicaid and Medicare populations, the LGBTQ+ community, women’s health, and more. Personalized care is in ever-greater demand and we believe we will increasingly see greater adoption and more holistic solutions tailored for specific populations emerging in 2022.
3. More comprehensive care solutions: More companies, including Better Health, are focusing on holistic care solutions that incorporate not just physical healthcare but also take patients’ emotional and mental state, and their social and structural factors of health, into account. In 2022 will see more healthcare startups emerging to offer more integrated, ‘one-stop-shop’ models that combine a variety of services such as community support, virtual access to medical professionals, home delivery of medicines and supplies, and more.
4. Continued uptake of telehealth and digital services by payers and providers: As more providers grow to offer more holistic, patient-centric services, it’s essential that more of those services be covered by insurance — this will enable patients to receive affordable and high-quality care and support at home. While in-person services will gradually increase as the pandemic abates, telehealth and home-based care are here to stay and Medicare and other insurers are likely to continue to incent telehealth offerings. In 2021, we saw many private insurers promote the availability of telemedicine and, given recent policy changes along with advances in technology, we expect that the demand for virtual care covered by insurance will continue to grow in popularity.?
5. Continued strong investments in healthcare: We believe we’ll keep seeing strong investments in healthcare. Payers and health systems have increasingly become open to working with digital health companies, in part fueled by the strong clinical evidence shown by early digital health companies, as well as the broader appetite to offer digital solutions. This has greatly impacted the opportunities for digital health companies to partner with such stakeholders to both bring their solutions to market faster and access a massive patient population. We’re seeing a massive shift in partnership opportunities, which are catalyzing even more funding and growth for digital health.