For digital technology companies, understanding the different priorities of providers and payers is key to providing unique, valuable digital health solutions.
The new era of hybrid care
Healthcare leaders agree that recent telehealth closures signal wider trends in the market. To establish resilient telehealth and virtual care programs, digital technology vendors need to differentiate themselves, provide personalized patient experiences, and deliver value in a scalable and sustainable way.
With both payers and providers, it’s crucial to understand the healthcare buying committee and their specific interests:
- Clinical users and buyers focus on ease of use, contribution to or treatment of healthcare worker burnout, and patient access.
- Technology leaders care about ease of implementation along with security and risk, and tend to juggle multiple priorities across a small team.
- Financial and business leaders need to understand ROI. The industry shifts have led to revenue uncertainties, and they are also looking for ESG efforts for cost savings and environmental efficiencies.
While there are clear differences between the two audiences, they share similar goals: improving health outcomes and finding efficiencies for staff and workflows.
Understanding provider priorities for digital solutions
For health systems, digital solutions—whether telehealth, decision support, remote monitoring, or engagement—will always be measured against the outcomes they drive for patient health. Many providers continue to face budget challenges and staff burnout in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, so any digital solution must demonstrate an ability to adapt to the needs of clinicians and staff and to easily integrate into the workflow.
Regarding content solutions for patients, the authority of the information is paramount. Misinformation in the digital age has overwhelmed patients, and they have a hard time trusting the information they find. Solutions need to be trusted and evidence-based and ideally aligned to the clinical information the care teams themselves use.
When pitching digital solutions to providers, demonstrating how solutions can deliver value along a spectrum can be attractive to buyers. Telling the story of a flexible solution that meets patients’ needs can enable vendors to be more consultative. The value spectrum can be:
- No-code and low-code options - Launching with value in the short term and building out workflow integrations over time
- Configurable not custom - Balance flexible workflow integrations configurable for roles while not being endlessly customizable
- Scalability for stickiness - Automation delivers value at scale and increases customer satisfaction, while making solutions stickier
