There has been an avalanche of investment in digital health technology over the past decade. In the past ten years, $104 billion has been invested in digital health. Just in the past quarter, U.S.-based digital health startups raised $2.5 billion in 119 separate deals. While the number is large, this was the second lowest quarter of investment since the fourth quarter of 2019. 

The median total compensation for primary care physicians rose 4.41% last year, compared with 2.13% in 2021—not enough to keep up with the 6.5% inflation in the same period but a larger increase than other physicians. Their average income is now $265,000 compared to $260,000 in 2022.

What AI-enabled services will our competitors offer—and will our customers prefer them? Which of our current services will be made redundant by AI? What staff activities will be replaced by AI-enabled technology, reducing costs (and price points)—and also our revenues?

Interest in integrating behavioral health services within the larger health care sphere continues to grow. The push for integration started with the passage of the Affordable Care Act—with parity the elimination of pre-existing condition exclusions and annual/lifetime benefit limitations.

There is significant public consternation about the state of the mental health system. Access is huge issue with an average time to appointment of over 6 weeks. Gun suicide rates hit an all-time high in 2022, and guns maintained their rank as the leading cause of death for children and teens. Youth mental health visits to emergency departments doubled between 2011 to 2020, and there was also a five-fold increase in the proportion of visits for suicide-related symptoms.

Finding the right model and reimbursement structure for care coordination is getting more attention. For health plans, health benefit utilization continues to inch up and Medicare Advantage plans took a hit on their bonuses this past year.

New knowledge is coming to the health and human service field every day. The rate of new medical developments is increasing with the “doubling time of medical knowledge”—moving from 50 years in 1950 to 7 years in 1980 and to 0.2 years in 2010.

Older adults at risk of or experiencing homelessness have unique needs compared to other populations experiencing homelessness. Compared to individuals younger than 50 years who are homeless, older adults experiencing homelessness have higher rates of chronic illnesses such as geriatric conditions, cognitive impairments, high blood pressure, arthritis, and functional disability.

A total of 45% of health care consumers in the U.S. have unmet health-related social needs (HRSNs) that they experience regularly, and most of these individuals (75.6%) report having more than one of these unmet HRSNs.

More than two-thirds of the 70 million adults aged 18 and older who reported an addiction or mental health disorder in the past reported recovery.