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Healthcare is perhaps one of the largest sectors in the U.S. and has evolved from numerous points of view, with healthcare data rising to become its deep-rooted member. Despite the developed and specialized technical proficiency today, healthcare organizations are struggling with data irregularities, missing data, and legacy systems. The significant reason for these issues is the lack of knowledge about population trends. Population health management has developed from an idea to become a clinical discipline that works on consistently refining and developing measures to improve citizens’ health status. A thriving population health management program strives to deliver vigorous and coordinated care through a well-managed partnership network.  

While thousands of people continue to suffer the grave impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, many have experienced hardship in other ways as a result of delays in needed medical and surgical interventions. Although postponing a majority of non-emergency surgeries was necessary for a time, hospitals need to be prepared as elective procedures are being reconsidered and might bounce back with a surge in cases.

U.S. healthcare has made remarkable progress in facilitating interoperability. In a survey of hospitals and health systems, 69 percent of respondents said that they are able to share data within their own health system efficiently. In order to deliver better care and improve outcomes, most healthcare providers were quick to take measures to establish internal interoperability. However, when it came to sharing health data with other providers, payers and patients, the adoption of interoperability-driving technologies has been sluggish.

The novel coronavirus is spreading around the world exponentially. Governments, healthcare providers and businesses are introducing drastic measures to slow down the spread of the virus. The outbreak has been a major cause of concern for healthcare providers who are on the frontline of testing and treating infected individuals. Providers are not just concerned about patient lives, they are also concerned with the impact COVID-19 will have on the healthcare revenue cycle and financial operations. 

Interoperability within the healthcare industry refers to the integration of information stored across multiple health systems and facilitates the easy exchange of, and access to, data. This leads to improved patient care throughout the healthcare continuum. A recent report stated that 84% of healthcare organizations did not have efficient access to needed information from exchange partners on a different electronic health record (EHR) in a way that helped them facilitate care across their network.

While healthcare leaders uniformly agree that transitioning to value is the way healthcare is going to be in the coming days, it is unclear to most how they can make the transition without negatively impacting their cost outcomes. In an industry that had primarily been fee-for-service based, healthcare organizations are facing immense pressure to innovate and adapt or risk their long-term viability.