Healthcare Strategic Growth Blog

Tracking the Impact of COVID-19 Using All-Payer Claims Data

By Dave Sellers and Morgan Atkins

In a recent blog post, we took a data-based look at virtual care. We considered the importance of data for growth planning and how All-Payer Claims Data (APCD) provides unique insights that can inform hospitals and health systems as they prepare to respond to the growth of telemedicine.

In this post, we’re once again analyzing APCD, this time looking for COVID-19 trends. We’ve reviewed data trends from January - June of 2020, compared year-over-year numbers to see shifts from 2019 to 2020, and considered pre- vs post-COVID diagnosis code fluctuations. It’s important to note that while we reviewed diagnosis codes related to COVID, there are several which are for negative for inconclusive results. See below for our findings related to gender, age, and care setting shifts.

Early Data Shows the Rapid Shift in How Patients are Receiving Care

By Dave Sellers, Beth Duke, and Lee Ann Lambdin

In a recent blog post on planning for the future of telehealth, we shared tips for how to shift to a more aggressive virtual care strategy. We discussed ways growth planners can embrace telehealth and be better prepared for the future. We also talked about the importance of data while growth planning and how All-Payer Claims Data (APCD) provides unique insights that can inform hospitals and health systems as they prepare to respond to the growth of telemedicine.

We won’t have complete data insights until July as to the full impact of COVID-19 and the resulting rapid adoption of virtual care. The data we do have shows the drastic impact of the virus and the resulting stay-at-home mandates. By tracking the “Telehealth” care setting, we see a momentous spike in virtual care in March of 2020. While the transition to virtual care began to take effect in 2018, it clearly jumped in March of 2020 due to virus concerns. Take a look at claims and encounter data below to see the spike in virtual visits.

How Long Will You Wait for Care?

By Dave Sellers

Emergency departments are responsible for about half of all hospital admissions, according to a RAND Corporation study. In fact, more people step into ERs every year, with visits hitting 136 million in 2015, up from 97 million in 1995, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Meanwhile, the number of emergency departments is down about 11% over that same time period. As a result, many people in need of emergency care are waiting longer to see a doctor.

Statistics and Trends for Healthcare Providers: What to Know and How to Help

By Dave Sellers

What is the U.S. Opioid Epidemic?
(as defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)

In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to opioid pain relievers and healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates. Increased prescription of opioid medications led to widespread misuse of both prescription and non-prescription opioids before it became clear that these medications could indeed be highly addictive. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared the opioid crisis to be a public health emergency.

Our infographic shares statistics and trends resulting from this crisis and is based on <our all-payer claims data(APCD), highlighting the time period of Q3 2015 to Q2 2018. Many of these trends are both startling and very concerning. For instance, during this nearly three year time frame:

Stratasan’s Physician Patterns to Offer Expanded Physician Referral Insights

By Dave Sellers and Jason Haley

As you may have heard, CMS Administrator Seema Verma announced that The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is making Medicare Advantage encounter data, which covers provider identifiers, diagnoses and date and type of service, available for the first time to researchers.

This new effort is part of the CMS and White House patient data collaboration, known as MyHealtheData. CMS also plans to encourage Medicare Advantage programs to use release platforms that meet the capabilities of CMS' Blue Button 2.0 feature, which allows patients to access their own claims data. A patient-centered system requires focus on "data, quality data, cost data, a patient's own data," Vema shared.

How does this update affect Stratasan customers, and particularly, those in Medicare-only states: Alabama, Arkansas, South Dakota, Idaho, and Hawaii?

A Surprising Trend in Patient Care Patterns

By Dave Sellers

We recently tested a theory as to whether or not distance to a physician referral affects how quickly a patient seeks care.* All other factors being equal, we hypothesized that patients would not act as quickly in scheduling a physician visit if that physician is far away. Conversely, if the doctor is close by, we assumed patients would be more likely to book their appointment sooner.

In a previous post, we discussed a similar idea. Are patients more likely to go to the hospital closest to them when in need of care? In that case, tif all other factors are equal, then the answer was yes. But rarely are all other factors equal. Factors such as a hospital's CMI, their community perception, and relative patient satisfaction rates all come into play and can often be more important than proximity.

With this new theory, we were still considering the role of distance, but this time, we wanted to know how it would affect a patient’s responsiveness when needing to schedule time with a referred physician. Our findings surprised us.

Analysis on Daylight Savings Time and Heart Attacks

By Dave Sellers and Morgan Atkins

Our data research proves it: the number of heart attacks rises the Monday after daylight saving time. Our research uncovered an 80 percent jump in the number of heart attacks occurring the Monday after we “spring forward” for daylight saving time compared with other Mondays in March. That’s an increase worth taking seriously!