3 Healthcare Trends to Watch in 2024
The healthcare sector is being upended by new technologies and care delivery models that portend even more disruption in 2024. Everything from artificial intelligence, generative AI and machine learning to advances in wearable devices, remote patient monitoring and predictive medicine are in the mix.
Innovative approaches aim to increase access, lower costs, and improve patient outcomes and overall well-being across the care continuum. However, the degree to which they are successful will depend on overcoming challenges like clinician labor shortages, healthcare technology and interoperability issues, health equity imbalances, supply chain disruptions, and the ongoing impacts of the pandemic. Not to mention rising health insurance premiums and tightening reimbursements.
Here are some of the major future trends that we believe will shape the US healthcare ecosystem in 2024.
3 Healthcare Trends to Watch in 2024
The healthcare sector is being upended by new technologies and care delivery models that portend even more disruption in 2024. Everything from artificial intelligence, generative AI and machine learning to advances in wearable devices, remote patient monitoring and predictive medicine are in the mix.
Innovative approaches aim to increase access, lower costs, and improve patient outcomes and overall well-being across the care continuum. However, the degree to which they are successful will depend on overcoming challenges like clinician labor shortages, healthcare technology and interoperability issues, health equity imbalances, supply chain disruptions, and the ongoing impacts of the pandemic. Not to mention rising health insurance premiums and tightening reimbursements.
Here are some of the major future trends that we believe will shape the US healthcare ecosystem in 2024.
3 Healthcare Trends to Watch in 2024
The healthcare sector is being upended by new technologies and care delivery models that portend even more disruption in 2024. Everything from artificial intelligence, generative AI and machine learning to advances in wearable devices, remote patient monitoring and predictive medicine are in the mix.
Innovative approaches aim to increase access, lower costs, and improve patient outcomes and overall well-being across the care continuum. However, the degree to which they are successful will depend on overcoming challenges like clinician labor shortages, healthcare technology and interoperability issues, health equity imbalances, supply chain disruptions, and the ongoing impacts of the pandemic. Not to mention rising health insurance premiums and tightening reimbursements.
Here are some of the major future trends that we believe will shape the US healthcare ecosystem in 2024.
1
Clinician
Shortage
The Clinician Labor Shortage Will Intensify
A perfect storm is brewing that will magnify an already acute shortage of healthcare professionals in 2024, driven by a number of factors including:
- Increased competition for talent from emerging care models like retail clinics, urgent care centers, and telemedicine.
- An aging population and workforce, coupled with high clinician burnout rates, that continues to fuel significant staffing shortfalls across medical specialties and care settings. In fact, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) estimates a shortage of between 37,800 and 124,000 physicians by 2034.
- Regulatory and licensing barriers. State-specific licensing requirements can limit the mobility of clinicians, making it difficult to address regional shortages effectively.
This constraint on clinician capacity could make it increasingly difficult for patients to find providers and schedule timely access to healthcare services.
124,000
Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
estimates a shortage of between 37,800 and 124,000
physicians by 2034.
Addressing The Clinician Shortage
To help fill the void, many delivery models are expanding the pool of care providers to include more nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, pharmacists and others.These healthcare professionals can effectively manage many routine primary care services, chronic disease management, and preventive care traditionally handled by physicians.
For instance, nurse practitioners operating in-person in retail clinics have demonstrated high marks in patient satisfaction for services like diagnosis and treatment of common illnesses, vaccinations, and health screenings. Pharmacists in states with provider status can prescribe and adjust certain medications that once required a physician visit.
Expanding responsibilities for these clinicians promises more appointments available to patients, lower costs, and higher patient satisfaction. It also enables providers to more precisely assign the right type of clinician for the right type of care.
This multi-provider approach is a practical way to alleviate shortages while still delivering safe, effective care. Optimizing the use of technology with telehealth and remote patient monitoring will also increase clinician capacity, access, efficiency, and productivity.
Streamlining burdensome regulation and establishing interstate compacts could also work wonders to enable more licensed clinicians in the United States to practice across state lines throughout. Read more of our thoughts on navigating the telehealth regulatory labyrinth.
2
Virtual Care
Partnerships
Virtual Care Companies Will Increasingly Partner With Purpose-Built Clinician Networks
While many healthcare organizations initially tried to build and maintain their own clinician workforce and the technology that supports it, 2024 will see a continuing trend toward partnering with backend infrastructure providers to power this function.
As many digital health companies have learned over the past several years, creating their own virtual care platforms from scratch is extremely difficult, and is made doubly so by the clinician labor shortage addressed in the previous section. Doing everything in-house requires high overhead costs to build out teams and develop systems and protocols; time and money that may be better allocated to core competencies.
This outsourcing of virtual care operations enables healthcare organizations to quickly scale their offerings without taking on the risks and costs of internal development. By leveraging the expertise of partners skilled in building and operating clinician workforces, healthcare companies can shift their focus from recruiting, onboarding, credentialing and licensing clinicians to instead focus on innovating on patient experience.
In particular, partnering with established providers in this field can help healthcare companies achieve the high levels of utilization and performance required to demonstrate ROI and value. With deep experience managing complex operations at scale, these partners have honed best practices and use cases for optimizing clinician schedules, technology workflows, patient matching and more.
In the coming year, the healthcare industry will see continued consolidation and outsourcing of virtual care in the U.S. as healthcare groups focus on their primary mission of quality patient care and lean on vendor partners to provide the infrastructure.
3
GLP-1’s
Disruption
GLP-1 Medications Will Disrupt Food, Travel and Consumer Goods Market
Clinical results for glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medications like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro have shown tremendous promise in enabling patients with a high body mass index (BMI) to safely and effectively reduce weight as part of a managed care approach.
With approximately 42% of U.S. adults designated as obese — that’s 100 million Americans — there is significant demand by patients struggling to treat this chronic condition and live a healthier life.
The magic of these medications is in their ability to mimic the hormone GLP-1, stimulating GLP-1 receptors in the pancreas to produce more insulin. The additional insulin helps reduce blood glucose levels, which can help manage Type 2 diabetes. But GLP-1 drugs can also increase feelings of fullness over an extended time, leading to an average weight loss of 15%.
It’s difficult to overstate the ramifications.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that obesity accounts for approximately $147 billion in annual healthcare costs. And GLP-1 drugs also improve outcomes for patients with diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic conditions, making them a powerful new tool for preventative care.
Disruption Beyond Healthcare
But the ramifications from potential widespread use of these medications — and the suppressed appetite and weight loss that ensues— will have a pronounced ripple effect far beyond just healthcare in 2024. The downstream effects could be monumental.
- Demand for groceries and fast food are expected to decline as the number of patients taking these medications increases.
- Walmart reported that it is seeing reduced food sales from its shoppers who are taking GLP-1 medications
- Clothing brands are optimistic that newly slimmed-down shoppers will be eager to update their wardrobes.
And what about the impact these medications will have on less tangible measures like personal happiness, increased self-esteem, better sleep quality, and increased vitality? Those are truly life changing.
Bloomberg reported that Krispy Kreme shares fell last year over concerns that Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and similar appetite-suppressing drugs will shrink demand for donuts. Other packaged food snack purveyors are no doubt nervously pacing the sidelines to see how this will affect their share price too.
Bloomberg reported that Krispy Kreme shares fell last year over concerns that Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and similar appetite-suppressing drugs will shrink demand for donuts. Other packaged food snack purveyors are no doubt nervously pacing the sidelines to see how this will affect their share price too.
Analysts from Jefferies suggest that if the average weight of passengers decreases due to weight loss drugs, airlines could cut fuel costs substantially. It is estimated that United Airlines could save $80 million per year if the average passenger weight dropped by just 10 pounds.
What’s Next?
The rise of GLP-1 medications has been so swift that it’s easy to forget that we’re still in the early innings when it comes to this class of medications.
They are currently administered through once-weekly injections, but pharma companies are working to extend the duration and reduce dosing frequency. On a parallel path, pharma manufacturers like Eli Lilly are also developing GLP-1 medications that only have to be taken orally once a month. And they aren’t alone. Zealand Pharma, Hanmi Pharmaceutical, and Boehringer Ingelheim also have oral GLP-1 drugs in mid-late stage testing that could compete head-to-head with injectables.
The degree to which GLP-1 drugs impact health outcomes, patient care and the economy at large in 2024 will hinge primarily on three factors:
- The supply of the GLP-1 medications
- The price of the medications, which can top $1,000 a month out of pocket
- The extent to which health plans begin covering the medications
Reason For Optimism
There is reason for optimism in regards to increasing supply.
In a recent earnings call, Karsten Munk Knudsen, Chief Financial Officer for Novo Nordisk said that the company will be “delivering significant step up in volumes (of Ozempic and Wegovy) to the U.S.” in 2024. Eli Lilly, which markets Mounjaro for Type 2 diabetes and just announced FDA approval of Zepbound to specifically address chronic weight management, has also built a new manufacturing facility in North Carolina to increase supply.
As pharmaceutical companies ramp production, and more manufacturers compete for market share, costs should decrease. There is significant margin between net and list price that can be reduced to drive down costs; Ozempic’s list price is reported by the New York Times to be nearly two thirds lower than its list price. And as costs come down, these medications will greatly alter treatment protocols and guidelines for leading health issues like obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
The great unknown is when and to what extent that these medications will be included in healthcare coverage. Most private insurance companies and federal health plans don’t currently cover weight-loss drugs.
Employers are taking up some of the slack and beginning to subsidize the cost of GLP-1 drugs as part of employee benefits packages designed to keep workers healthier and more productive.
We’ll be supplying significantly more in 2024 compared to what we are in 2023″
Karsten Munk Knudsen
CFO Novo Nordisk
Employers Offering Coverage
Based on surveys
About 25% of employers currently offer coverage, with most experiencing positive outcomes according to results from a survey recently conducted by care delivery and navigation platform, Accolade. That number is expected to jump to 43% in 2024 according to the survey.
In parallel, pharmaceutical companies are partnering with payers and providers to develop innovative programs that leverage patient data to optimize medication regimens and demonstrate the value of covering these drugs.
For example, Novo Nordisk launched a two year outcomes-based contract with Cigna in 2022 that ties the cost of Wegovy to improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors using metrics like HbA1c, blood pressure, weight loss and BMI. Similar value-based care arrangements using real world evidence and patient data analytics will become more prevalent in 2024 as manufacturers make the case for expanded coverage.
Reason For Optimism
There is reason for optimism in regards to increasing supply.
In a recent earnings call, Karsten Munk Knudsen, Chief Financial Officer for Novo Nordisk said that the company will be “delivering significant step up in volumes (of Ozempic and Wegovy) to the U.S.” in 2024. Eli Lilly, which markets Mounjaro for Type 2 diabetes and just announced FDA approval of Zepbound to specifically address chronic weight management, has also built a new manufacturing facility in North Carolina to increase supply.
As pharmaceutical companies ramp production, and more manufacturers compete for market share, costs should decrease. There is significant margin between net and list price that can be reduced to drive down costs; Ozempic’s list price is reported by the New York Times to be nearly two thirds lower than its list price. And as costs come down, these medications will greatly alter treatment protocols and guidelines for leading health issues like obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
The great unknown is when and to what extent that these medications will be included in healthcare coverage. Most private insurance companies and federal health plans don’t currently cover weight-loss drugs.
Employers are taking up some of the slack and beginning to subsidize the cost of GLP-1 drugs as part of employee benefits packages designed to keep workers healthier and more productive.
About 25% of employers currently offer coverage, with most experiencing positive outcomes according to results from a survey recently conducted by care delivery and navigation platform, Accolade. That number is expected to jump to 43% in 2024 according to the survey.
In parallel, pharmaceutical companies are partnering with payers and providers to develop innovative programs that leverage patient data to optimize medication regimens and demonstrate the value of covering these drugs.
For example, Novo Nordisk launched a two year outcomes-based contract with Cigna in 2022 that ties the cost of Wegovy to improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors using metrics like HbA1c, blood pressure, weight loss and BMI. Similar value-based care arrangements using real world evidence and patient data analytics will become more prevalent in 2024 as manufacturers make the case for expanded coverage.
Conclusion
The healthcare industry is poised for disruption in 2024 as new technologies, care models, and medications transform how patients access and experience care. Several key trends will shape the landscape.
The growing clinician labor shortage threatens to limit patient access and stifle growth and innovation of digital health services. Healthcare providers and health systems must find innovative solutions to expand care capacity, such as increasing responsibilities for advanced practice providers, optimizing telehealth, and reducing regulatory barriers. Strategic partnerships with virtual care infrastructure providers can also quickly scale clinician workforces to meet rising patient demand.
GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro have demonstrated incredible potential for treating obesity and diabetes while spurring widespread economic impacts. As pharmaceutical companies increase supply and reduce costs, more employers and insurers are expected to cover these drugs. Healthcare providers and systems should prepare for shifts in patient health profiles and increased emphasis on weight management across prevention, treatment, and ongoing care.
Overall, 2024 promises accelerated transformation that will challenge all players along the care continuum to adapt quickly. However, by leveraging disruptive technologies and innovative partnerships, they can overcome hurdles, enhance care delivery and improve health outcomes across patient populations. The future of healthcare will be marked by creative new solutions to better serve patient needs.
Conclusion
The healthcare industry is poised for disruption in 2024 as new technologies, care models, and medications transform how patients access and experience care. Several key trends will shape the landscape.
The growing clinician labor shortage threatens to limit patient access and stifle growth and innovation of digital health services. Healthcare providers and health systems must find innovative solutions to expand care capacity, such as increasing responsibilities for advanced practice providers, optimizing telehealth, and reducing regulatory barriers. Strategic partnerships with virtual care infrastructure providers can also quickly scale clinician workforces to meet rising patient demand.
GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro have demonstrated incredible potential for treating obesity and diabetes while spurring widespread economic impacts. As pharmaceutical companies increase supply and reduce costs, more employers and insurers are expected to cover these drugs. Healthcare providers and systems should prepare for shifts in patient health profiles and increased emphasis on weight management across prevention, treatment, and ongoing care.
Overall, 2024 promises accelerated transformation that will challenge all players along the care continuum to adapt quickly. However, by leveraging disruptive technologies and innovative partnerships, they can overcome hurdles, enhance care delivery and improve health outcomes across patient populations. The future of healthcare will be marked by creative new solutions to better serve patient needs.
SteadyMD powers high-quality telehealth experiences for digital healthcare companies, lab and diagnostic providers, large employers, hospitals and health systems, and other healthcare services. The company offers a 50-state clinician workforce, clinical operations, and world-class product and technology. We provide a wide spectrum of services including: urgent care, primary care, mental health therapy, and lab and diagnostic testing. Our tech-enabled care teams include nurse practitioners, physicians and genetic counselors experienced in delivering care virtually.
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