Transforming Healthcare: Key Takeaways from AHIP 2023 Panel Discussion

Each year, AHIP’s annual event serves as a vital touchpoint for leaders of US insurers. The gathering offers a platform for the convergence of healthcare payers across the country to exchange ideas, insights, and approaches to improving patient outcomes and reducing healthcare costs. The 2023 edition was no different, presenting innovative strategies and trends that are shaping the healthcare sector.

One of the event’s main attractions was a panel discussion involving industry experts and TytoCare partners Dr. Joshua Elder, Senior Vice President at Highmark Health, Dr. Joseph Aracri, System Chair of Pediatrics at Allegheny Health Network, and Adrian Sovik, Regional Director of Helathcare Management at Elevance Health. The discourse centered around the future of healthcare, particularly the role of advanced technologies and how they could be leveraged to address existing challenges and shape the future of healthcare delivery.

In the panel discussion, Dr. Elder emphasized the power of the patient-provider relationship and the role that technology could play in enhancing this bond. He identified the need to augment healthcare accessibility, particularly after hours and on weekends, and suggested that telehealth could help bridge this gap.

Dr. Aracri also underscored the potential of technology to engage active, tech-savvy families in their healthcare journeys. He highlighted how advanced healthcare technologies like TytoCare could help reduce frequent ER visits and urged healthcare providers to seize these technological opportunities to improve patient care. He highlighted the way that his organization is working with TytoCare to maximize success by selecting families who are already active on MyChart, illustrating that they are prepared to engage with technological solutions. They also pinpoint high utilizers of urgent care and ER, and leverage virtual care to make their interactions with clinicians more convenient and streamlined. 

Data analytics stood out as a major theme in the discussion, with Dr. Elder illuminating how it could be harnessed to improve healthcare access. Dr. Elder highlighted that data analytics have the potential to extend patient access, enhance provider experiences, and reduce emergency department visits, ultimately contributing to more efficient and cost-effective healthcare delivery.

Dr. Aracri shared an excellent use case where AHN is using TytoCare to provide timely and high quality access to children in schools. By embedding the pediatric office in a YMCA, which is also on the campus of one of the schools in the district, they have a clinician on site there at all times. Using TytoCare, school nurses located in the six other buildings in the district can have virtual visits with that physician, while adding a parent to the call so they can be present for the virtual exam and be part of the decision-making following the exam and diagnosis. This enables AHN to manage an entire population from outside the home via their schools. Dr. Aracri mentioned that this can be extended to the work area and even preschools.

The panel discussion also delved into the challenges and opportunities that lie in adopting new technologies. Dr. Aracri pointed out that one of the biggest challenges is getting clinicians to engage with and adopt these new technologies, as it requires a significant shift from established practices. He shared that he works with clinicians to help them understand that telehealth and similar technologies are meant to augment rather than replace traditional care, emphasizing their role in enhancing healthcare delivery.

Dr. Elder further stressed the benefits of telehealth, highlighting its potential to enhance specialty care access in rural areas, thus addressing significant healthcare accessibility gaps.

AHIP 2023 shed valuable light on the transformative potential of telehealth, digital technologies, and data analytics in shaping the future of healthcare. These technological advances are set to revolutionize healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.

Innovative solutions, such as those presented by TytoCare, are paving the way to a more accessible, efficient, and patient-centric healthcare industry. As we move forward, the insights from the AHIP conference underscore the importance of embracing these technological advancements for a more accessible, affordable, and efficient healthcare system.

A big thank you to our partners for joining us on this panel and for the excellent discussion which was enjoyed by all!