West Monroe has officially announced the launch of four new solutions, each one coming decked up with uninterrupted access to new technologies, partnerships, and cutting-edge data, and analytics. From a holistic sense, this access, along with the solution’s own comprehensive design, should enable the stated products to take on healthcare industry’s several big challenges, including labor shortage, escalating costs, and the imperative to adapt to new Medicare Star Ratings. To understand the gravity of these challenges, we must acknowledge how, according to Fitch Ratings, the operating margins for non-profit health systems fell to 1% to 2% at the end of last year. Having touched on the cost aspect, we must also mention that, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the healthcare industry had about 1.8 million job openings in December but could only bring 70,000 employees against that number. Making matters even more complex is, of course, the upcoming change in measurement of Medicare Star Rating, which will define a lot of the care quality and reimbursement levels moving forward.
So, how exactly will West Monroe navigate such a reality? Well, the answer begins from its Clinical Workforce Modernization solution. This particular solution, in practice, should be able to help health systems achieve financial resilience, increased workforce satisfaction, and enhanced patient care etc. Contextualizing this with figures would reveal how the stated product can generate upto 20% savings on the inpatient bedside workforce in lower acuity departments. Next up, we have a solution dedicated towards cost optimization for payers and providers. Leveraging new third-party data sets for benchmarking, as well as an ability to run in a condensed timeframe for faster delivery, this solution can bring down operational costs rather significantly, and therefore, improve margins. In total, this brainchild of West Monroe should be to save anything between 20-30% in IT spend for both payers and providers. Markedly enough, the given product builds upon the company’s success that came last year when it optimized one healthcare provider’s IT operating model and talent strategy, saving the latter a total of $400 million in the process. Anyway, moving on, West Monroe also took this opportunity to reveal a pursuit of data-driven healthcare transformation. Here, the idea is to let healthcare organizations discover and leverage hidden value in their data. On a granular note, such a pursuit is likely to involve using advanced analytics, data monetization, and generative AI to take on challenges like post-COVID adaptation, workforce shortages, and financial constraints. With a clear emphasis on rapid value identification and realization, the said solution helps users navigate the complexities of today’s healthcare ecosystem, while simultaneously empowering them to maximize their data assets for innovation and growth.
Finally, there is the optimizing of Medicare Star Rating, which enables payers to start proactively and adapt to the data needs and calculation requirements that will emerge from the supposed Star rating changes. Further providing visibility into data gaps and potential risks, the solution is expected to health payers avoid the loss of a 1-star reduction, which in turn, can lead to a 13.4-17.6% decrease in revenue and over 8-12% loss in enrollment growth year over year.
“Our multidisciplinary approach combining healthcare expertise with technology, data, operations, IT strategy, and people & organization expertise takes a holistic approach to these pressing healthcare issues—a tested path to enduring results. These offerings were designed with real clients in mind who have already signed on with West Monroe,” said Larry Briski, leader for the payer and provider sectors at West Monroe.
