How to Use Healthcare Big Data Analytics for Accountable Care

As healthcare organizations sit down to plan their operational strategies for the next few years, they may find themselves staring into a maelstrom of uncertainty, rapid evolution, and unpredictable change. 

With the timing of the EHR Incentive Programs up in the air, the potentially disastrous impact of ICD-10 just days away, and a growing number of payers insisting that accountable care is the only way to proceed in the future, providers may be asking themselves how they could possibly have the time and budget to invest in healthcare big data analytics.

After all, what is the point of devoting significant resources to collecting and storing patient data when immature technologies, poor interoperability, and convoluted workflows prevent organizations from extracting and delivering actionable insights at the point of care? 

With more immediately pressing concerns on hand, the theoretical world of big data analytics seems like something only the largest, most stable, and most lucrative organizations can afford to contemplate.

However, providers who focus on their short-term challenges at the expense of an overarching data analytics and governance strategy may be missing out on some valuable opportunities to kill two birds with one stone.  Big data analytics can help providers meet the demands of their current mandate-driven, fee-for-service environment while also positioning them for success in the future world of accountable care.