4 Key Trends to Affect Healthcare Significantly in 2020

It’s that time of year again where everyone seems to want to tap into their internal Nostradamus and make predictions for the upcoming year. Often these prognosticators are given to wild speculation, predicting the healthcare equivalent of a future filled with flying cars. But when it comes to healthcare finance, it’s important for the predictions to be grounded in reality. For example, it would be easy to predict this is the year value care or fee-for-value (FFV) in all its iterations begins to replace fee-for-service (FFS) as the dominant payment system. But it’s unlikely to happen for one simple reason: the soup is only half cooked.  Nearly everything in healthcare takes time. And while the alignment of incentives to deliver high quality care at optimized costs is continuously, yet gradually improving, FFS remains much easier to administer. Payments for value can be highly complex. With that in mind, there are several healthcare finance sub-trends I believe will make a significant impact on healthcare in 2020.