Trends 2025: Healthcare leaders are focusing on patient access, AI and Medicare Advantage

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Healthcare organizations are setting their priorities for 2025, with 52.8% of hospital and health system leaders identifying patient access, throughput and capacity as their top focus.

According to a report from Vizient and its subsidiary Kaufman Hall, strategies aimed at delivering value-driven experiences are seen as critical to enhancing patient loyalty and maximizing impact, according to a recent survey.

Yelena Bouaziz, principal, intelligence, Vizient, explained healthcare IT solutions are vital for transforming patient access and fostering a seamless, efficient healthcare system.

"Success hinges on understanding diverse patient needs and tailoring solutions accordingly, leveraging virtual health options, telehealth capabilities, and digital tools like patient portals, online scheduling, and health tracking apps," she said.

She pointed out innovations including geo-mapping and social determinants data to drive targeted strategies such as mobile clinics for underserved areas.

Bouaziz added streamlined operations -- aided by length-of-stay optimization, procedure scheduling and real-time bed management – to expand capacity without compromising quality.

Meanwhile, investments in advanced analytics and AI, which promise to optimize patient care by improving decision-making, identifying care gaps, managing high-risk patients, and streamlining testing and remote care, are also gaining momentum.

"AI further enhances efficiency by simulating operational changes, analyzing feedback, and automating administrative tasks to maximize resource use," Bouaziz said.

Pharmacy innovation remains another key area, with outpatient pharmacy spending growing 52% faster than total outpatient expenditures.

Steven Lucio, senior principal, pharmacy solutions, Vizient, said while specialty pharmaceuticals are extremely expensive, cell and gene therapy medications are "extraordinarily" expensive (i.e., multimillion dollars in cost).

They are so expensive that patients, providers, and payors are trying to hold manufacturers accountable for the long-term outcomes that are promised (such as curing sickle cell disease, enabling a muscular dystrophy patient to walk).

"Right now, it is incredibly difficult to capture the long-term outcome data that would enable us to identify which of these high-cost drugs are truly cost effective," he explained.

Therefore, many organizations are trying to find ways to capture and integrate data from disparate sources to provide a perspective of the patient journey.

"Moving from a fractured state of disparate systems to a manner in which we can look at a patient longitudinally is an important goal for IT," Lucio said.

The survey indicated Medicare Advantage contracts present additional challenges for providers, including discharge delays and restrictive authorizations.

This is leading providers to reevaluate business models to navigate cost pressures and payer behaviors while they work to optimize reimbursement structures and improve patient outcomes.

Bill Ringwood, associate principal, consulting, Sg2, a Vizient company, said providers are still sorting out IT-related strategies to adapt to Medicare Advantage contracts.

Some are considering utilization of payer platforms to electronically exchange clinical data to reduce additional documentation requests.

"However," Ringwood said, "providers must carefully consider this approach to ensure they are getting something valuable back in exchange, like improved contract terms that align with their payer strategy."