Blog articles
Crony-Virus19: How Government Interference Hampered our Response to the Global Pandemic
As we move past the one-month mark of dealing with COVID19 in the United States, it’s important to document the lessons we are learning and inventory obstacles we’re facing in fighting this invisible enemy. When the pandemic passes, and it will pass, we need to be...
COVID-19: The Case for Propelling Healthcare Forward
Life is always interesting. Just a few months ago I was living through the bitter disappointment of the Baltimore Ravens losing a heavily favored playoff game to the Tennessee Titans. Today, I’m sheltering in place wondering when the grocery store will get another...
Four Ways the COVID-19 Pandemic Response is Accelerating Consumer-centered Care
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to the status quo around the world. We’re sheltering in place, practicing social distancing, and working and schooling from home where possible, among other changes. The impact on U.S. healthcare has been...
Amazon, Walmart Make Bold Moves in Healthcare…Again
Mega companies like Walmart and Amazon keep pushing the envelope when it comes to healthcare. There seems to be no stopping these retail giants as they continue to forge ahead with the rollouts of new health services that are surely disrupting the status quo in...
Millennials Are Redefining Healthcare as We Know It
There’s been some real disruption to the healthcare status quo in recent years and much of that change is in anticipation of millennial utilization. This on-demand, tech-savvy generation, now comprising the largest population segment in the country, is a driving...
Consumer Demand for Healthcare Convenience Paves the Way for Retailers
Today’s healthcare consumers, driven largely by the Millennial population, demand convenience, quality, transparency, and affordability. In a growing number of cases, consumers are eliminating trips to emergency rooms and even primary care physicians in favor of a...
Forecast Predicts Millennial Health Shock
When a storm is coming you can feel it in the air, and the stormy forecast for millennial health suddenly has everyone on high alert. Still in the midst of transitioning to value-based care, the healthcare industry could face unexpected turbulence adapting to...
6 Healthcare Trends to Watch from Credit Suisse Annual Healthcare Conference 2019
The Credit Suisse Annual Healthcare Conference 2019 wrapped up last week. A big thank you to Credit Suisse for inviting Canton & Company to attend and share knowledge with leading health plans, providers, vendors, and CMS. As I reflect on the knowledge-packed...
A Look Back at Our 2019 Healthcare Predictions
We launched into the year by inviting some of our favorite thought leaders to share their predictions for 2019. Now as the year draws to a close, it’s time to take a retrospective look at how our forecasters’ insight has played out in the healthcare market since....
Healthcare’s Smartest Investment Ever
You probably cringe when you see reports showing that Americans aren’t getting any healthier for the $3 trillion currently being spent on care. Reasons behind the weak return on investment include all the usual suspects: waste, poor patient engagement,...
3 Ways Apple is Taking a Major Bite Out of the Healthcare Market
Analysts predict that Apple’s market opportunity in healthcare could reach as high as $313 billion in just a few years. Even the more conservative estimate of $15 billion is quite an eye-popper when you consider that Mayo Clinic’s 2018 revenue, for example, was $12...
Interoperable Claims Data: Not Just a Pie in the Sky
Among all the healthcare stakeholders, payers capture the most data. Their giant claims processing machines gather up information from the entire provider community, not just a single silo. Their patient records also contain a universe of clinical info that is...
Smart Health Market Interview – Mark Redlus, CEO, Tridiuum
Tell us a little bit about Tridiuum.Tridiuum is a digital behavioral health company that powers interactions between patients and providers in the outpatient setting, particularly for integrated models and primary care. Our platform improves overall outcomes by...
Two New Trends Prove Consumer Satisfaction is More Important than Ever
Assessing healthcare quality is no simple task. Historically, the work has involved a symphony of government agencies, professional groups, researchers, and clinical pros all piping in on the processes they believe signify quality. But in more recent years, those...
5 Things to Know as Telehealth Reaches its Tipping Point
Market demands for “care everywhere” have brought telehealth to the forefront, and the outlook is quite positive. Utilization is up. Policy and payment details related to telehealth are being ironed out, and value-based models are ready to pay off for providers who...
Bay State Fits Food into the Continuum of Care
Massachusetts is among the more aggressive innovators when it comes to healthcare, and is one of just a dozen states implementing a Medicaid ACO model. We’ll be curious to see how providers integrate social determinants of health into their value-based plans —...
How to Prepare for the Rollercoaster of Generational Care
Even our most forward-thinking colleagues lie awake at night wondering how to juggle the strategies of today with the innovations they’ll need for tomorrow. Take, for instance, the divergence among the various generations of health consumers. On one hand, we have...
Patients Get Creative to Get What They Want
Necessity is the mother of invention, according to ancient Greek philosopher Plato. But we might argue that wants — not just needs or necessities — are giving rise to a wave of new inventions in healthcare’s opportunity era. In other words, consumers need good...
The Elephant in the Room: Patient Engagement
There are plenty of reasons why it’s difficult to engage consumers in their health, but stakeholders have yet to find the right formula to overcome those barriers. In today’s opportunity era, the innovators who can solve this problem — with solid data to back it up...
Providers Still Falling Short of Consumer Demands
By executive order, the Department of Health and Human Services has only a few weeks to design a plan that would enable consumers to see the negotiated costs of their health services. That won’t just reveal the insurance co-pays or the hospital chargemaster...
Retailers Bet on Consumers’ Love of Convenience
Everywhere you look it seems neighborhood retailers are expanding their health offerings to fill a market need. Consumers certainly like the idea of accessing on-demand, convenient care options, so the new surge of expansion makes a lot of sense. For example, CVS...
Better Health Could be a Meal Delivery Away
Experts say the typical American diet is a leading cause of health problems in our country. But all those bad-for-you processed foods also happen to be inexpensive, quick, and tasty. No wonder Americans eat poorly. It’s just so easy to do! In today’s drive toward...
Payers Accelerate Investment to Close SDOH Gaps
As we’ve discussed before, 94% of our colleagues believe the current healthcare system revolves around sickness rather than health. But the majority of them also believe we’ll transform that dynamic within the next 10 years. To be clear, their optimism isn’t based...
Urgent Care Gets Boost from Medicare
We continue to see evidence of the opportunity era in healthcare — this period of transformation creating opportunities for innovators and forward-thinking organizations to deliver status quo-breaking products and services. Take for instance, the positive outlook...
Four Consumer Health Trends That Can Make or Break a Business
Nothing will shape the next decade of healthcare as much as consumerism. Patients will continue to look for new options in health because they view the system’s status quo as painfully contrary to their otherwise tech-enabled, on-demand lifestyle. Whether you’re...
Consumers Say “Yes” to Three Convenient Distributed Care Models
In the emerging Smart Health Market, a greater portion of buying power is shifting to consumers. As families become more sensitive to costs, they’re also demanding a system that works for them. And what works? In a word: convenience! There’s no doubt that consumer...
Hey Alexa, Can We Trust You with Our Health Information?
No one was surprised when Amazon announced it had set up HIPAA compliance for its Alexa technology. Yeah, we figured it was only a matter of time. By clearing this gigantic regulatory hurdle, Alexa has been able to launch some nifty new consumer tools. And we know...
Survey Results Point to New Kind of Healthcare Industry in 10 Years
No doubt healthcare is changing, but how fast will it change and into what? Over the last six months, Canton & Company engaged industry insiders for their views on the overall direction for healthcare. In some cases, the results validated our suspicions, and in...
A Netflix Model for Hep C
We’re keeping a close eye on the ingenious “Netflix model” two states are launching to pay for hepatitis C drugs. It certainly has some implications for how a Smart Health Market might approach rising drug spend. Earlier this year, Louisiana and Washington...
3 Companies Making Big Moves with SDoH
Not so long ago, addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) was considered a bleeding-edge concept. While pretty much every stakeholder agreed that “life” factors make an enormous difference in health outcomes, few had the stomach to test out new programs....
MyHealthEData Puts Consumers at Center of Healthcare Conversation
At HIMSS 2019, CMS Administrator Seema Verma reminded the throngs of health IT enthusiasts that patient data belongs to patients. We couldn’t agree more. In a white paper published last year, we introduced the concept of the Smart Health Market and discuss the...
Healthcare’s Big Reveal Sets a Precedent
Prices matter. They are the fuel that energizes the free market, setting buyers into action. However, when U.S. hospitals posted their prices online for the first time in January, it was nothing but crickets.The big reveal had no effect on the market. The posted...
In Pursuit of Smart Health: Lyft’s Focus on Medicare Advantage Plans
We love a good Smart Health Market story, and a recent article in FierceHealthcare about the partnership between ride-sharing giant Lyft and Medicare Advantage (MA) plans made us smile. Common sense and uncommon partners at work to solve real problems and drive...
Will Hospice Thrive as a Benefit Under Medicare Advantage?
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) continues to develop new concepts and test new ideas to improve the way care is delivered in this country. We think it’s great. They are paying attention to changes in the healthcare landscape – like the...
Consumer Opinion of Healthcare Will Shape 2020 Election
If you listen closely, you can hear the voice of the consumer getting louder. And as the 2020 election nears, the volume will likely grow to a roar that simply can’t be ignored. Imagine patients and care facility residents shouting, “Too expensive!” or “Too...
HIMSS 2019: Treat it Like an Investment (or don’t go)
If you’re in healthcare, you know HIMSS. It’s the largest healthcare IT conference in the world, attracting tens of thousands of attendees and exhibitors every year. It’s incredibly well run, offers a variety of educational opportunities and top-notch speakers, and...
Top Healthcare B2B Marketing Strategies
Growing a healthcare business is hard work. In fact, it can be exhausting. But it can also be exhilarating and fun if you have – among other things – the right marketing strategy in place. In this blog series, we’ll explore what it takes for healthcare B2B...
Business Incentives Will Fuel Healthcare Interoperability
Recently, the White House Office of American Innovation hosted an event focused on healthcare interoperability, citing “citizen access to health records and interoperability a top priority.” It’s encouraging news for anyone with a vision for an improved American...
$30B Spent on Healthcare Marketing: What you need to know
Ugh. That was our reaction to a recent article in Kaiser Health News. Just to be clear, we are big fans of Kaiser Health News and of responsible marketing. Our dismay was driven by the fact that the healthcare industry is spending $30B a year on marketing – nearly...
CBO Guide to Jump Starting Value-Based Care
Brent T. Feorene, COO It’s about time. Healthcare is finally catching on to what community-based organizations have known for years: the social conditions of someone’s life are just as important as the medical aspects when it comes to health (sometimes even more!)....
Five of Our Favorite Healthcare Innovations
As big believers in a market-driven health economy, it’s frustrating to watch the goliath U.S. health system in a slow creep toward a more market-based model – but it is a creep forward. And if you look closely, you’ll see some pretty exciting activity taking...
No More Disruption, PLEASE!
Think everyone in healthcare embraces the idea of disruption? Think again. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review addresses this reality head on. Physicians in particular are fatigued from the endless changes disrupting their work lives and ability to...
Healthcare B2B Marketing: Meet the New Decision Maker
Let’s get right to it. If you’re a healthcare marketer or business leader, you need to know who is making buying decisions for your product or service. And you need to understand them deeply. Who they are drives what information they need, when they need it and how...
Healthcare Transformation, Millennial-Style
We’ll let you in on a secret. If you want to know what path healthcare will take in the next decade, just follow the Millennials. Don’t believe it? Take a look at how their demands for “ease and frugality” have given rise to a number of highly successful consumer...
Medicaid Patient “Cindy” Discovers the Value of the Smart Health Market
Last December, in an article for Managed Healthcare Executive, Leanne Berge, CEO for Community Health Plan of Washington, introduced us to “Cindy” – a Medicaid patient suffering from diabetes with complications and an anxiety disorder. Further taxing Cindy’s health...
Can Bind disrupt the market with on-demand health insurance?
Recently, I read a HealthLeaders article about an interesting startup in Minneapolis – Bind. It’s an “on-demand” health plan which provides a set of core services while allowing consumers to buy additional insurance on an as-needed basis. “Under the plan, consumers...
All In or Kind-of-In: Which Will it be for New CEO of Amazon-JP Morgan-Berkshire Hathaway NewCo?
By now, you are likely aware that the as-of-yet-unnamed healthcare NewCo, created by Amazon, JP Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway, has hired Atul Gawande, MD as its CEO. Dr. Gawande is pretty well known in healthcare circles, as a celebrated surgeon, Harvard Medical...
Market Innovations: Reviving the House Call
We love cool, practical innovations, especially the kind that give seemingly outdated practices a second chance at life. Think of it as upcycling for healthcare – applying the old in a way that is relevant and modern. This time it’s the long-forgotten house call....
The Medicaid Transformation Project: Helping Create a Smart Health Market
Recently, 17 health systems across the US announced their participation in The Medicaid Transformation Project – a movement designed to transform care delivery for 75 million Medicaid recipients nationwide. What’s cool about this project is its focus on innovation...
The Secret to Successful Innovation in Healthcare: Design Thinking
We’ve been fans of design thinking for quite some time – especially as a catalyst for innovation and moving past the status quo holding healthcare captive. Jeanne Liedtka, professor of business administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of...
Why Dr. Bruce Leff Believes in Hospital at Home
In an article for the NEJM Catalyst blog, Dr. Bruce Leff of Johns Hopkins University Medical Center shares his experiences and beliefs in moving care out of the traditional – and not-so-accommodating – hospital institution and into the comfort of the patient’s...
Evolution of the Smart Health Market
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLMDPa2zbJY