Technology alone is not the answer to the capacity crisis facing healthcare. But when thoughtfully integrated into care delivery operations, digital tools can help healthcare organizations rebalance workloads and stabilize patient access.

The post Repurpose, Don’t Replace: Three Ways Digital Agents Are Improving Phone Access appeared first on MedCity News.

Sixty million rural Americans aren’t asking for another strategic framework. They’re asking for care — accessible, affordable, and delivered with dignity.

The post Rural America Doesn’t Need Another Framework … It Needs Care by September 2026 appeared first on MedCity News.

Health systems can turn insights into action, ensuring that preventive care actually happens by combining accurate risk prediction with human outreach and careful planning.

The post AI Can Expand Access to Healthcare — But Only With Human Action appeared first on MedCity News.

We need an agentic layer capable of fetching a longitudinal medical record and translating that static clinical intent into a daily, living context.

The post The “Third Way” for Digital Health Engagement appeared first on MedCity News.

I lived for nine years with ALS while navigating a healthcare system that routinely obscured my own medical reality. But I know that pain is only amplified for individuals without medical expertise like mine.

The post We Have a Problem: Even Doctors Struggle to Navigate our Healthcare System appeared first on MedCity News.

Just as health plans have learned to identify and intervene early with chronic conditions like diabetes or heart disease, they can and should do the same for housing and other health-related social needs.

The post Housing is the Next Frontier in Proactive Care. Here’s How Health Plans Can Help appeared first on MedCity News.

A quick conversation about coverage, availability and pricing can help patients make informed decisions.

The post The Future of Pharmacy Access: The Impact of Putting Rx Information in Patients’ Hands appeared first on MedCity News.

By empowering patients to take part in their own care, we can expand capacity, improve outcomes, and make the system more sustainable.

The post Scaling Healthcare Starts at Home: The Case for Self-Treatment appeared first on MedCity News.

The shortfalls that accompany this technology gap touch everything from continuity of care and outcomes to the patient experience.

The post Mind The Gaps: Closing the Digital Divide to Improve Behavioral Healthcare appeared first on MedCity News.

We’ve automated everything but the one workflow that most directly determines whether patients actually get the care they need. The gap between knowing what works and implementing it at scale reveals the real problem that healthcare treats referrals as an administrative burden to manage, not a critical workflow to optimize.

The post The Referral Is Broken: Why Healthcare’s Last Bottleneck Still Lacks Innovation appeared first on MedCity News.

Network inaccuracy isn’t an inconvenience – it’s a public health crisis.

The post The Hidden Data Errors Delay Healthcare for Millions of Americans appeared first on MedCity News.

Awareness of autism has grown, but we need to move beyond this into understanding and acceptance. Real progress depends on how we translate understanding into action — training more professionals, funding adult services, and redesigning workplaces and communities so autistic individuals can flourish throughout their lifespan.

The post Late-in-Life Autism Diagnosis: Why Adults Still Face So Many Barriers and How We Can Do Better appeared first on MedCity News.

If we gut school-based care, we’re not only closing doors, we’re also deepening the racial and economic inequities that already shape our mental health system. We can’t claim to care about equity in healthcare if we’re willing to strip care from the very places that reach the kids who need it most.

The post The Dire Cost Of Medicaid Cuts To Kids’ Mental Health appeared first on MedCity News.

White bagging not only creates significant uncompensated administrative burden and scheduling challenges for providers, but it also delays or limits access to necessary medication for patients.

The post White Bagging: A Prescription for Disruption in Care appeared first on MedCity News.

Let’s be honest. Clinicians are taught to reduce unnecessary care. But there’s a razor-thin line between avoiding unnecessary tests and failing to believe a patient’s symptoms.

The post When Listening Could Save a Life: The Human Cost of Medical Gaslighting appeared first on MedCity News.

Why has there been so little progress against the rate of osteoporotic fractures and the associated morbidity and mortality? The deaths are real, the pain and suffering are real — and almost all of us have witnessed it. And, of course, the cost to our health system, $57 billion per year, is real.

The post Atherosclerosis and Osteoporosis: A Tale of Two Conditions appeared first on MedCity News.

Here’s a roadmap that brings together a wide range of existing and new initiatives under four key goals that enable community-based organizations to take stock of their existing capabilities and coordinate across them effectively.

The post Protecting Members’ Medicaid Coverage Must Start Now appeared first on MedCity News.

The promise of current and future technologies is encouraging – and it further underscores the importance of building the right support systems to help patients navigate the system and access the appropriate care at the right time and place.

The post Better Navigation is Key to Improving Behavioral Health Access and Outcomes appeared first on MedCity News.

Too many men ignore symptoms until they can no longer function. We end up seeing them in the emergency room, sometimes with late-stage cancer or uncontrolled chronic disease that could have been managed if addressed earlier.

The post Rethinking Masculinity in Men’s Health appeared first on MedCity News.

Researchers and policymakers must challenge the default framing and stereotypical minority myth mindset which uniformly classifies AANHPI communities as low-risk, hindering both visibility and resource allocation. 

The post Overlooked in the Overdose Crisis: Addressing Substance Use Treatment for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Communities appeared first on MedCity News.

What if the kind of cuts we should be talking about are the ones that actually make care better? Like cutting confusion. Because for many people, the biggest barrier to healthcare access isn’t cost or availability – it’s complexity.

The post A Call for Healthcare Cuts — But Not the Kind You’re Thinking Of appeared first on MedCity News.

While high-acuity options must remain for those that need stronger interventions, millions more could be benefiting from access to low-acuity or minimal interventions.

The post The Workforce is Suffering from Chronic Back Pain — It’s Time for a New Approach appeared first on MedCity News.

Our mental health system is not designed to treat people in crisis. Instead of being administered right away and effectively, it shoves patients through a maze of barriers. If we are serious about saving lives, then we must reconsider how mental health care is administered.

The post The Mental Health Crisis: Why Immediate and Affordable Care Needs to Become the Norm appeared first on MedCity News.

While the drop in drug overdose deaths is promising, and could potentially be partially attributed to the efforts of the federal government, we must remain cognizant about the sheer number of lives we continue to lose every year to overdose.

The post Buprenorphine Access Still Lags, Even After Major Federal Policy Changes appeared first on MedCity News.

Patients should know exactly what’s covered and what it costs before receiving care. Doctors should be empowered to make medical decisions without interference from insurance companies. And the entire process should be designed to facilitate care, not obstruct it.

The post How High is Too High? The Crippling Cost of Denial Rates appeared first on MedCity News.

it is essential that more individuals receive high-quality, evidence-based primary care. While government agencies are working towards this objective, significant efforts can also be made at the community level and by independent primary care providers.

The post 4 Ways to Help Vulnerable Patients Engage with Primary Care appeared first on MedCity News.

While federal healthcare programs focus their attention on ensuring healthcare resources exist for communities in need, HRSNs become critical drivers of whether individuals can actually access and benefit from these resources. 

The post Medicaid’s Health Equity Problem Starts and Ends with Health-Related Social Needs (HRSNs). Why Are They Being Overlooked? appeared first on MedCity News.

The so-called Destination: Health network will launch later this year with Aetna Medicaid members in Louisville, Kentucky and Aetna dual-eligible special needs plan members in Tampa, Florida and Southeastern Louisiana.

The post CVS Health launches new social care network in partnership with Unite Us appeared first on MedCity News.

Through the startup’s collaboration with the rideshare service, Grand Rounds care coordinators are able to book an Uber to arrange transport for a member to meet their healthcare needs.

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