IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON MEDICAL PRACTICES

Impact of COVID-19 on medical practices

This is an unforeseen situation for all of us. The pandemic has left everyone clueless as nobody of us saw it coming. One day this pandemic situation is surely going to end and the post covid-19 period is going to be different not only for the consumers of health but everyone in all departments. I would like to go through some of the positive impacts and make a small comparison of medical practices between the pre COVID-19 and post COVID-19 periods.

In my opinion the greatest positive impact of COVID-19 would be on the physicians and the doctors of the current situation. The amount of pressure these health care providers take is unimaginable.  The society has developed a great amount of respect for the doctors now I therefore see the same gesture even after the pandemic in a long run.

·       To promote social distancing and avoid such risk, many suppliers/ providers are going to rely more on telehealth to deliver the required medicines to its patients. This kind of a treatment is going to completely fresh even for the providers. But this surely reduces the risk involved in it. This methodology is something the consumers can easily adapt to as it is very similar to online shopping.

The above mentioned point implies that there will be more technology which means less use of medical staff in the healthcare centers. The post pandemic situation could see a possible unemployment in medical department. (Source:https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/an-opportunity-to-reshape-health-care/article32206881.ece)

·        No of patients post pandemic will drastically reduce and the healthcare services provided will also come down. Once everything becomes normal, there will be an increased competition to capture the backlogged demand. Those who provide excellent services to its patients now particularly will gain a definite goodwill to its institutions and gain consumer’s satisfaction. Medical practices will experience changes in payer mix. As increasing numbers of individuals lose their insurance coverage due to unemployment, providers will likely experience an increase in self-pay or underinsured patients.

·        Some physicians and clinicians will not have the cash flow or risk tolerance to maintain their practices as a result of COVID-19. As a result merging with all the large scale clinics and hospitals could be the way to go for these small scale workers to save themselves from any kind of financial crisis. Private equity firms have emerged as key players in the industry in recent years. It is likely they will continue to purchase practices post-COVID-19. However, post-COVID-19 purchase offers will likely be at different valuations than prior to the pandemic. (Source: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2767633)

·       Established reporting deadlines and performance periods may be extended, and the crisis period may be excluded from a practice’s performance evaluation. Physicians and doctors would have certain targets to achieve which could have been fixed pre pandemic. As the pandemic exists, those deadlines might be extended. Practicing physicians might get time to rebuild their plans and negotiate the other upcoming tasks by seeking their senior physicians.

Here in India, it is a well known fact that the medical infrastructure that we currently have cannot serve the needs of the whole population. The pandemic has seriously affected the average doctors per patients’ ratio. According to WHO’ report India has a mere 1:1000 ratio of doctors to patients.  But the year 2020 will definitely see a worse ratio than this simply because the population of patients has seen a huge hike.

There should be no surprise even if professionals come out especially to treat COVID-19.

Expected changes in medical care post COVID-19

·       Technology will come in very handy once the pandemic ends. So, patients might experience ease of access that eliminates transportation logistics, virus exposure concerns, and long waits. This quick and significant shift in response to the pandemic will likely result in an increased demand for telehealth services post-COVID-19.

·       Medical practices now should focus on investing on technology according to the expected deviation of the consumers and should evaluate their current and projected utilization of telehealth.

·       If a telehealth strategy is not currently in place, implementing a strategy that focuses on specific patient groups and services may be in the best interest of the practice.

·       New practices will need to focus efforts on timely and accurate billing and accounts receivable collections to maximize cash. If merger or acquisition seems likely, it is beneficial to begin conversations with interested buyers now.

·       To maintain cash flow post-COVID-19, medical practices will work with possibly further reduced staffing complements and an increased focus on back-office functions. Here back-office staff means those who work on those technical and finance related functions.

·       As mentioned earlier, due to an expected increase in the use of technology allows a greater emphasis on positions collecting payments. Physician practices should continue to evaluate past performance with alternative payment models in order to more thoroughly assess potential changes.

These expected changes are not sure to happen post pandemic but are definite possibilities in the near future. I strongly feel that all the independent medical practices will surely continue and along with that the healthcare industry will be able to adapt to post COVID-19 care delivery. Evaluating staffing, expense management, merger or acquisition considerations, telehealth utilization, contracting, or any additional medical practice considerations are the key terms that is going to decide the fate of post pandemic situation.( Source: https://www.pyapc.com/insights/post-covid-19-future-of-medical-practices/)

We can also find some very important positive impact of COVID-19 on the medical practices.

The most familiar positive side of COVID-19 is that the nature is regaining itself, the quality of air has increased, etc. But how has COVID-19 impacted medical industry?  Well, it can’t be said as completely positive about the pandemic, to be fair. The hours of working has increased, the population required for supplying health services has increased, and the industry has certainly gained goodwill which is expected to last for long, and so on. This is too much pressure to take for this industry but then all the hopes are them. That is why I feel this as a positive impact as this never happened before this.

Conclusion

While the fear of the novel coronavirus pandemic is still spreading rapidly, there is a lot of hope that this to end as early as possible. People are staying indoors to avoid the possible contamination. My conclusion is as simple as it gets. HOPE is all what we need now this tough time but we will definitely get through it and surely can adapt to the new POST PANDEMIC WORLD!!!