2018 Healthcare Trends
Impacts On Military Beneficiares
2018 Healthcare Trends: Impacts On Military Beneficiaries
January 19, 2018
As we begin 2018, we take a look at the past few years to predict some of
the trends we might see in the health care environment this year.
In 2016, health care comprised 17.9 percent of the nation's GDP (up from
17.7 percent in 2015). Consumers continue to bear more of the costs of
their care, which are passed on to them from their employers. According
to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S. households
/nance a little over 28 percent of the costs of health care and the rise in
these costs increased an average of 4.3 percent in 2016 over the prior
year. (A continued good-news story for military bene/ciaries is that the
percentage of health care costs in DoD's budget has remained stable or
even decreased.) Controlling costs will continue to be important, and
organizations and health plans will manage this in a variety of ways.
Here are four trend areas that will shape health care in 2018:
Greater emphasis and reliance on technology: The use of various
technologies will become even more pronounced as they become
essential enablers in the expansion of access to care. The electronic
health record (EHR) systems are proliferating in all practice environments.
This will facilitate large amounts of health care data, “big data,” to be
aggregated for better patient management and population health
management and will enable tracking of care of individuals and groups.
With DoD and the VA agreeing to use the same EHR, called Genesis, they
now will be able to track servicemembers health outcomes longitudinally
over time.
The use of mobile technologies will expand rapidly. Both providers and
consumers continue to /nd new uses for digital health technology, such
as /tness trackers, heart monitors, diabetic sugar monitors, and
smartphone applications. Clinical research supports that consumers can
experience better outcomes when they can track results and are better
informed about health.