Following several proposed changes to the CMS’ reimbursement schemes, healthcare in America may be becoming more decentralized in the future.

James Spencer, Data Scientist at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view on the current approach to reopening the US economy:

“Slow consolidation of the US healthcare infrastructure has resulted in the growth of larger complexes in high-population areas at the expense of more remote, less-dense areas – a model that made sense pre-pandemic, as higher volume hospitals have been shown to have better patient outcomes for several procedures.

“However, in these pandemic-stricken times, highly centralized healthcare with a dense collection of patients is exactly the opposite of what we should be aiming for. Perhaps to remedy this situation, the CMS’ has proposed changes to both the allowed procedures for smaller Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs) and a sweeping expansion to support for telehealth.

“Telehealth has been one of the most important changes for US healthcare, seeing an 85-fold growth in patient volume in the month of April alone. Telehealth is critical to the COVID-19 response as it allows for healthcare provider and patient interaction without any risk of spreading the disease. With some expansions ordered to be made permanent for a post-COVID world as well, this will allow more isolated areas to still get the quality of care that they need.

“The expansions of allowed procedures for ASCs will result in a more decentralized healthcare environment, which will perform more strongly in a pandemic-stricken world as well as benefit the most rural and isolated patient population of the US.”

If you would like to know more, please send your questions to Rebecca Panks, PR Executive at GlobalData (pr@globaldata.com)