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Trends in Healthcare Financing

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The pandemic has inevitably changed the trajectory of the healthcare industry, among numerous others. From supply chain issues to staffing to care provided to healthcare financing and more, no area of the sphere has remained untouched. Add that to the wider issues of rising inflation rates, growing international instability, and increased demands from service users, to stay ahead in the healthcare industry, it is becoming vital to stay updated with healthcare trends.

Factors Shaping the New Healthcare Financing Trends

If you feel the world is moving faster than ever before, you’re not alone. This is a sentiment shared by many. Let’s explore some factors that are changing healthcare and healthcare financing for the future.

Technology advancement — From the beginning of mobile internet to 5G communications, the tech industry has come in leaps and bounds. Although consumer tech dominates, medical and healthcare technology is also advancing with experimental and promising treatments being discovered and some becoming more accessible. This has meant that not only do researchers have to discover innovative ways to fund science, but patients also must seek medical financing solutions to fund their healthcare.

Coronavirus pandemic — Putting a strain on the healthcare industry as a whole, the pandemic shone light upon the weaker areas of many worldwide healthcare services, indicating that almost no country has got it quite ‘right’ just yet. At the same time, it spurred increased investments, which now, as we move further into 2022, will become clearer as to how effectively they could impact healthcare solutions.

Inflation rates — The United States is close to a 40-year-high in terms of inflation with rates in May noted at 8.6%. This indicates greater pressures on the current market and will heavily impact investment decisions for the foreseeable future.

Increased service-user expectations — Almost 60% of financial service users now expect more from their provider in terms of digital service, but just 27% succeed in this task, according to consumers. This indicates a significant gap in user demand and results, which could be effectively harnessed to drive consumer engagement.

Top Healthcare Financing Trends to Expect in the Future

A staggering 100 million people in the US have healthcare debt. And that’s the US alone. Financial, sociological, political, and other factors have delivered significant instability to the global economy.

So, which trends should healthcare finance professionals look out for this coming year?

Automated payments

When it comes to bill-paying, direct debits, and others, the general rule of thumb is; that the simpler, the better. However, in practice, many companies fail to do so because of international money transfer problems and needing to go to a physical branch, among others. This is why automated payments should be the top of any healthcare financing provider’s list of projects/companies to fund.

Fully digital processes

Even KYC and AML can be completed digitally, so it’s no surprise when consumers become frustrated at non-digital services. Transforming from a traditional organization to a digital one is not a walk in the park and requires effort to transform the business into a more contemporary institution, including e-signatures, digital AML/KYC, and full medical loan software, to name a few.

AI scoring and underwriting

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technology (ML) are advancing at a rapid pace. For a company to keep up with the trend, it’s vital to stay on track of all available data. As this is almost impossible for a human to complete, this is where technology helps. AI scoring and underwriting models assess loan applications in a smarter, more innovative way to deliver lower-risk results quickly for the company.

Buy now and pay later

With companies such as Klarna and Amazon’s analog growing in popularity, the pay-as-you-go purchase model is on the rise—even in the healthcare financing industry. Many people prefer to pay for their care in more affordable installments as opposed to large lump sums and this is a trend that’s set to grow soon.

Dheeraj Kapoor
Dheeraj Kapoor
A content writer with over 5 years of experience, Dheeraj has written for a variety of domains including finance, education technology, technology, and Big Data among others.

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