Cybersecurity, regulation and artificial intelligence will be the biggest trends impacting healthcare planning in 2025, according to a panel of BakerTilly analysts in a recent webinar.
In 2024, cyberattacks significantly disrupted healthcare operations, compromised patient data, caused financial losses, and threatened patient safety. Garrett Gosch, principal at BakerTilly, said ransomware attacks on healthcare organizations have doubled since 2023. With the average cost of a data breach estimated at $10 million and the average time to discover such a breach at 191 days, healthcare organizations are taking steps to identify cybersecurity issues and protect themselves from attacks. must be taken.
He outlined steps healthcare organizations should take to strengthen against cyberattacks.
- Take inventory of all business assets and identify the importance of each asset.
- Identify risks associated with your business and the assets that support it.
- Prioritize your cybersecurity investments based on identified risks and the criticality of each business asset.
Regulation and the new government
Kevin Coonan, president of Baker Tilly, said the outcome of the 2024 election is expected to have a significant impact on health policy, potentially impacting costs, access and regulatory frameworks across the industry. . Changes that could come from Washington include:
- Enhanced support for Medicare Advantage plans.
- potential changes to the Affordable Care Act, including the introduction of risk pools, the loss of enhanced subsidies for purchasing marketplace plans, and the introduction of non-qualified health plans;
- Potential increase in Medicaid eligibility requirements.
- More lenient Federal Trade Commission action has eased restrictions on mergers and acquisitions.
- Pharmacy benefit manager reform.
Increasing use of AI in healthcare
AI has the potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry, enhancing areas such as streamlining patient care and administrative processes. But the increased use of AI also raises concerns about data privacy and ethics, Coonan said.
A March Microsoft survey showed that 79% of healthcare organizations are already using AI. Possible applications of AI in healthcare include:
- Automate claims processing.
- Adaptive and responsive underwriting.
- Legal and compliance monitoring.
- Fraud detection and prevention.
Increased focus on member engagement
Baker Tilly Director Heather Haack said the health plan is placing an increased emphasis on member engagement. Healthcare plans must evolve to meet increasing customer expectations in a variety of ways, including:
- We continue to focus on deploying and customizing member engagement tools.
- Customized care management and the ability to coordinate care across primary care providers and specialists.
- Continuous innovation with advances in AI and interoperability with cybersecurity practices in mind.
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