| A necessity during the pandemic
When healthcare delivery strategies shifted to the home out of necessity during the pandemic, healthcare consumers began to question the value of navigating the old system, one that requires time off work, transportation, childcare, and long waits just to have basic needs met. People adapted quickly when physician offices closed during Covid, learning to navigate care virtually or from their homes. Years later, that shift has not fully reversed. Preventive services like eye exams still lag behind pre-2020 levels, as older adults continue to limit in-person visits they feel aren't completely necessary. Medicare members in particular have grown comfortable with virtual care for routine needs, but have also signaled a desire for more support than can be provided over a screen alone without giving up the convenience they've come to expect. There's no going back
For health plans, that's a good thing: the home is not just preferred, but reveals clinical and social realities the system could never catch on its own. The home reveals details you'd never expect to surface in a clinic visit, even if clinicians ask the right questions.There's a vulnerability in the home that a clinician can't get anywhere else – a clear picture of all the little details that impact health. When you see the conditions a person lives in, you understand why they might not be following their care plan, why they frequent the ER, or why they miss appointments. Many of the people we label as "disengaged" without a second thought are, in reality, making compromises no person should ever have to make – tradeoffs that quality metrics don't account for. An evolving system
For plans, access to care enabled by the home drives engagement, engagement improves adherence, and adherence shapes outcomes and downstream costs. When people cannot realistically be expected to go to the system, the system absorbs the consequences – avoidable hospitalizations, acute events, exacerbated chronic disease. And for people, they've now seen another way is possible. They know care can be modified to fit into their busy lives instead of requiring them to rearrange everything else around it. — By MedCity Influencer Jane Flaherty | 
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