News Feature | January 29, 2015

Majority Of Execs Expect ROI On Population Health Tools In Less Than 4 Years

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Most healthcare executives and managers in a recent survey said they expect to see returns on their population health management investments in two to four years.

As part of an online survey conducted by KPMG, nearly 300 healthcare executives were asked about their population health management (PHM) programs and what they expected from them in the future.

According to 20 percent of the healthcare managers and executives, one to two years is all the time they expect it will take before they see a return on their PHM investments. Another 36 percent said they expect to see ROI in less than four years’ 29 percent say they don’t expect to see any ROI until at least five years out; and 19 percent don’t expect any ROI at all.

“Our clients see benefits from population health management programs as a part of the solution to reduce avoidable medical costs and variability in care,” said West Johnson, a KPMG advisory partner who heads provider transformation. “Preventive care is given a big priority in these programs, since they deliver improvements in efficient and effective care with a high degree of patient engagement.”

iHealth Beat reports that when these executives were asked about the greatest benefit from population health management programs:

  • 36 percent cited preventive care
  • 23 percent cited the development of evidence-based clinical protocols for improving care efficiency
  • 21 percent cited management of chronic disease

 

However, only 24 percent said their population health programs were mature, according to Healthcare IT News. Thirty-eight percent said their programs were in elementary stages, while 23 percent were in infancy and another 15 percent said their capabilities were nonexistent.

“Healthcare providers are facing a seismic shift in the coming years, largely because government and commercial payers will increasingly decline to pay for avoidable hospital visits,” Kuehn said. “Providers and other participants in the care delivery system need the real time data and analytic tools to not only manage and improve the quality of care provided, but also the ability to measure costs to operate efficiently.”