Closing gaps in care – finding our way in a world with COVID19
Closing gaps in care has always been a challenge and only became more difficult during the COVID19 pandemic. For example, newly diagnosed cases of six cancers during the first couple of months of the pandemic declined 46% compared to 2019. This rate of decline continued, though less dramatically, through much of 2020 and early 2021. Delayed diagnosis can result in more advanced and difficult-to-treat cancers. It’s unlikely that cancer incidents are lower but rather that there were fewer screenings because patients were delaying care due to COVID. They didn’t want to leave their homes to go to an office or lab for fear of catching the disease. This is one example of the challenges facing health plans today when it comes to closing gaps in care.
Meeting members’ healthcare needs is job number one for health plans. When a member hasn’t had a screening within a designated time period, they have a “care gap”. The most important care gaps to close are part of the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDISⓇ), which measures how well a health plan handles preventive care and treatment of chronic health conditions. More than 90 percent of US health plans use HEDIS measures to gauge their performance; more than 190 million Americans are covered by these health plans.
Finding safe, easy, and effective ways to keep these members up-to-date on their screenings makes a difference in members’ lives. When looking into gap closure programs, it is important to consider if the program will:
- Deliver a member-centric experience that drives actionable results
- Increase compliance rates and member satisfaction throughout the engagement
- Eliminate operational burdens with a single end-to-end program
ixlayer powers lab testing programs to help you reach your members where they are. For example, we can ship a pre-diabetes screening kit to a member’s home, where they can test in the comfort and convenience of their own home. You can funnel those members into approved condition management programs with those test results.
With convenient and frequent testing, you can close more care gaps, increase quality ratings, grow membership, and improve outcomes.
Learn more about how ixlayer cloud solutions are helping health plans like yours.