mobile apps as tools of cost reduction in health care

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MOBILE APPS AS TOOLS OF COST REDUCTION IN HEALTH CARE

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Page 1: Mobile Apps as Tools of Cost Reduction in Health Care

MOBILE APPS AS TOOLS OF COST REDUCTION IN HEALTH CARE

Page 2: Mobile Apps as Tools of Cost Reduction in Health Care

OVERVIEW

The increasing health care cost in the United States has become an area of concern. The total health care cost in the United States in the year 2014 was $3.8 trillion which is more than the total GDP of Germany! These statistics are indeed alarming. For combating this issue the Affordable Care Act was enacted but it has failed to improve the targeted areas namely:-

•Cost of managing chronic diseases constitutes about 70% of total health care cost vs only 30% for preventive healthcare.

•Readmission penalty was recorded in 2,225 hospitals whereas only 18 hospitals recorded 2% penalty.

•Overcrowding of Emergency Rooms in hospitals due to shortage of facilities and physicians.

•Electronic health records impose a huge cost on productivity of small providers.

©2016 TechAhead

Page 3: Mobile Apps as Tools of Cost Reduction in Health Care

OVERVIEW

Moreover fastly-aging population, inclusion of about 30 million newly-insured people into the system, poor fitness and lifestyle also contribute to above statistics.

Recently there is a increase in demand for healthcare apps market. According to Manhattan Research Cybercitizen Health study, 38% of Americans feel their mobile apps are “essential” for searching health and medical information and about 100 million Americans use mHealth technologies. Owing to this the mHealth revenue is expected to reach $21.5 billion by 2018.

©2016 TechAhead

Page 4: Mobile Apps as Tools of Cost Reduction in Health Care

According to the eClinicalWorks survey in 2013 about 93% of physicians believe that mHealth apps can improve treatment and about 89% of them are likely to recommend some healthcare app to their patients. However they are reluctant to do so without sufficient evidence of success of these mobile apps. Rarely do the app developing companies have the best interest of the hospitals or patients at heart while developing their apps. Consequently most of the health care apps available in the market have very limited scope, functionality and efficiency.

Above statistics are disheartening to say the least. But there is a bright side to it. Let us see.

©2016 TechAhead

HOW DO MOBILE APPS IMPACT HEALTHCARE COSTS?

Page 5: Mobile Apps as Tools of Cost Reduction in Health Care

•Managing life-threatening diseases-According to Accenture’s analysis of mobile monitoring solutions using mobile healthcare apps can lead to 15-20% reduction in hospital stays and 30% reduction in ER visits. This means using mHealth care apps can save the United States about $23 billion by targeting chronic diseases like diabetes and heart-related problems and save about $2000-$3000 per patient.

•Avoiding non-urgent visits to the ER- iTriage is one of the most popular healthcare apps for Android, ipad and iphone. It offers patients a symptom checker, nearest urgent care clinic and comparative cost of visit to those facilities. It can even give directions to the nearest clinic and give reminders for filling the prescription after each visit. It can instantly save the patient about $300-$3000.

©2016 TechAhead

HOW DO MOBILE APPS IMPACT HEALTHCARE COSTS?

Page 6: Mobile Apps as Tools of Cost Reduction in Health Care

•Empowering patients to manage their condition-Health care apps can empower patients to manage their conditions in a more proactive way. They allow patients to understand symptoms, track their progress and ultimately result in fewer visits to the hospital.

•Reducing readmission – According to Mayo Clinic’s study involving mobile monitoring application for cardiac patients only about 20% of the patients who regularly monitored their weight and blood pressure using apps were readmitted against 60% of those patients who did not monitor these parameters daily.

©2016 TechAhead

HOW DO MOBILE APPS IMPACT HEALTHCARE COSTS?

Page 7: Mobile Apps as Tools of Cost Reduction in Health Care

•Improved adherence to prescription- There is a direct correlation between increased healthcare cost with non-adherence of patients to their prescriptions. There are many apps available which give timely reminders to take medication and timely messages to the patients from their healthcare providers. This helps in reducing healthcare costs drastically to the tune of about 50% according to many trusted surveys.

•Better healthcare to senior patients- With increasing age healthcare costs increase exponentially. Thankfully more and more senior patients now own smart phones and tablets and are receptive to using healthcare apps.

©2016 TechAhead

HOW DO MOBILE APPS IMPACT HEALTHCARE COSTS?

Page 8: Mobile Apps as Tools of Cost Reduction in Health Care

•Cheaper mobile tests and remote assessment- Mobile ultrasound scans and cheap smart phone add-ons that serve as EKG monitors can save a patient upto $600 per visit as compared to tests done on a full-scale ultrasound machine.

•Children’s apps for better reporting of symptoms- Many apps for children use a gamified version to engage the patient and educate and empower them to report and check their symptoms. A popular app is Pain Squad app for pain management launched by The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. This app has led to an astounding increase in the self-reporting of pain symptoms by children having cancer from 11% to 90%.

©2016 TechAhead

HOW DO MOBILE APPS IMPACT HEALTHCARE COSTS?

Page 9: Mobile Apps as Tools of Cost Reduction in Health Care

EASY MOBILE USE CASES FOR COST REDUCTION

Some types of patient apps that a healthcare provider can launch without much investment are outlined below. These have been launched by MobileSmith for its users but can be customized and rebranded to our needs :-

1.General Hospital/Urgent care App- A user-friendly urgent care app as a must for all organizations. You can include general instructions, directions, wait time and search times.

2.Outpatient Care App- A good healthcare app for recently-discharged patients can keep them informed and engaged throughout their recovery period. These apps can track the treatment, medication and lab results of the patients; build and manage their care team; track their daily progress; connect patients to others in similar condition.

©2016 TechAhead

Page 10: Mobile Apps as Tools of Cost Reduction in Health Care

EASY MOBILE USE CASES FOR COST REDUCTION

3.Wellness App- the most populate healthcare apps are the wellness apps which educate people about healthy lifestyle and habits; connect with a dietician and give healthy food recipes; track symptoms and exercise effects; connect with wellness community members.

©2016 TechAhead

Page 11: Mobile Apps as Tools of Cost Reduction in Health Care

5 STEPS TO LAUNCH A COST-EFFECTIVE MOBILE APP

A good healthcare app will optimize both the users’ need and the providers’ cost. Steps that should be followed to develop an inexpensive healthcare app are outlined below:

1.Involve Line- of- Business in mobile use case development - Your medical and marketing team best understand the needs of patients. They should be given the required tools to develop a cost-effective as well as user-friendly keeping in mind the targeted patients.

2.Review your prototype live and make alterations Your prototype should be easily navigated and user friendly. It should allow the developer to make changes to its design without any additional cost of development.

©2016 TechAhead

Page 12: Mobile Apps as Tools of Cost Reduction in Health Care

5 STEPS TO LAUNCH A COST-EFFECTIVE MOBILE APP

3.Use readymade bullet-proof app libraries to build your own app- You can use MobileSmith’s mobile app libraries to build your own app for more speedy development.

4.Manage your app portfolio- use MobileSmith’s content management system to manage your entire app portfolio without much effort.

5.Quickly establish a secure data exchange- MobileSmith uses authentic user identification and direct data streaming between the backend support and the application, bypassing the MobileSmith server.

©2016 TechAhead

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