eFax Blog

Turning Expensive Health Disparities into Economic Opportunities

blog-medical-care-difference

Achieving health equity is no longer just a moral obligation for healthcare organizations. It’s also a significant step toward improving revenue and reducing healthcare costs. That’s one reason why today’s health systems need a business strategy for addressing health equity effectively.

It’s an area where health tech — and specifically, equitable sharing of healthcare data — is poised to make a significant difference.

Taking a Closer Look

Recently, I presented a Georgia HFMA Chapter webinar, “From Expensive Disparities to Economic Opportunities: The Key to Health Equity ROI.” I shared results from a CHIME survey of healthcare IT leaders, commissioned by Consensus, that showed 62% of respondents say health equity is among their organization’s top five priorities. Another 8% said it was their top priority, and 25% said it was among their organization’s top three priorities. Among HFMA webinar attendees, 57% said health equity ranked among their top five priorities.

I would argue that the economic impact of health inequities make it a top concern for healthcare leaders: 

  • Deloitte estimates the cost of health inequities at $320 billion annually in avoidable healthcare costs.
  • Most organizations can’t afford to shoulder these costs, Deloitte says. As a result, most healthcare executives plan to increase investments in health equity this year.

Establishing a business case for strategic investments that advance health equity starts with understanding where breakdowns in eliminating disparities in care exist. One of the most common sources of disparities occurs when health systems struggle to share patient information with healthcare’s “digital have-nots,” organizations like post-acute care facilities, substance use disorder clinics, behavioral health clinics and more that didn’t qualify for EHR implementation incentives and can’t afford to implement one on their own. 

Health systems frequently run into roadblocks when trying to strengthen information exchange with small providers that don’t own an EHR and don’t have access to the latest interoperability technology. The impact runs deep. Breakdowns in information sharing affect care coordination, the ability to make or follow up with referrals, and more, affecting both quality of care and revenue.

In fact, 85% of Georgia HFMA webinar attendees said challenges in sharing information with small facilities impact health equity and revenue “a lot” — for example, through higher readmissions, duplicate tests and sicker patients.

Yet just 30% of larger providers are working one-on-one with smaller providers to address this challenge, according to the CHIME survey. Nearly 60% say it’s a problem they’re not equipped to solve.

Finding a Way Forward

It typically takes 1-2 days or 3-5 days to share data with small and post-acute facilities when an EHR or interoperable connection doesn’t exist, healthcare IT leaders say. In these instances, providers overwhelmingly send information via paper fax (nearly 46%), not digital fax (29%). That’s a finding that was corroborated by attendees of the Georgia HFMA webinar.

Today, there are simple tools that can help bridge gaps in data sharing that impact health equity. These tools incorporate technology most healthcare organizations already own: digital fax.

For example, Consensus Clarity transforms digital unstructured documents — from PDFs to scans to images with handwritten text — into useful and actionable data that can automatically be applied to structured data fields in the EHR. This process, called intelligent data extraction, uses natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to pull the needed information and send it to clinicians and staff in a structured format directly within their workflow. 

AI-powered tools like Clarity are paving the way for better access to care, outcomes and experiences as well as more equitable care. They strengthen the ability to make and follow through on referrals, protecting health system revenue. They also optimize resources across the continuum of care.

Leveraging Health Tech for Improved Equity and Revenue

It’s time to explore the difference intelligent data extraction could make for health equity, efficiency and revenue for your organization. 

View our CHIME survey report to compare where your organization stands on tech equity in care and find practical ideas for strengthening your approach. Talk with us about how to put a pragmatic solution for closing gaps in information sharing into play. 

With the right tools and a thoughtful business strategy, your organization can make bigger moves toward eliminating health disparities while decreasing costs and boosting revenue.

Related Articles

A female doctor in a white coat and with a stethoscope around her neck sits on a couch next to an older male patient. She is holding a tablet and pointing to the screen while he also points, and they both look at it intently.
Healthcare & Interoperability

The Time to Bridge Tech Inequities in Mental Health Care is Now

Doctor,Touch,On,Virtual,Interface,With,Analysis,Chromosome,Dna,Genetic
Thought Leadership

Prioritizing Health Tech Investments: Key Considerations for Leaders

Insurance,Healthcare,Doctor,Analyzing,Medical,Report,And,Medical,On,Hospital
Thought Leadership

Overcoming Financial Barriers to Digital Transformation

Doctor,With,Piggy,Bank,In,Hospital,,Closeup
Thought Leadership

Striking Alignment Around Health Tech Investments

Serious,Female,Doctor,Using,Laptop,And,Writing,Notes,In,Medical
Healthcare & Interoperability

Nursing Home Software: Shifting from Clinical Documentation to Care Coordination

Healthcare & Interoperability

The Cost of Doing Nothing: What Manual Workflows Really Cost Skilled Nursing

blog-muse-2025-inspire
Thought Leadership

MUSE 2025: Innovation, Connection, and Giving Back

Skilled,Practitioner,Listening,To,Mature,Woman’s,Complains,And,Making,Prescription
Healthcare & Interoperability

SNFs Are the Blind Spot in Healthcare Interoperability

blog-ai-integration
Thought Leadership

Innovating Around AI: The Shift Towards Integration and Real-World Impact

blog-care-coordination
Healthcare & Interoperability

How to Close Care Coordination Gaps With Interoperable Cloud Faxing

blog-keys-to-digital-transformation-edit
Thought Leadership

5 Keys to Digital Transformation in Healthcare

blog-cloud-fax-outlook
Thought Leadership

Predictions from the C-Suite: A Sunny Outlook for the Cloud in 2025

Healthcare & Interoperability

Unstructured No More: How AI-Powered Data Extraction is Transforming Healthcare

Healthcare & Interoperability

EHR Interoperability in Healthcare: Achieving Seamless Data Exchange

blog-pano-piedmont-healthcare
Thought Leadership

Piedmont’s Cloud Fax Revolution: Improved Scalability, Efficiency, and Patient Care

Medical,Worker,Touch,Cloud,Computing,Icon,Network.,Cloud,Technology,cloud,Data
Thought Leadership

Beyond Paper: Celebrating the Evolution of Fax as an Intelligent Conduit of Health Data

blog-pano-himss-2025
Thought Leadership

ViVE and HIMSS 2025: A View from the Front Lines of Healthcare Innovation

blog-pano-healthcare-equity
Thought Leadership

A Health IT Leader’s Wish List for 2025: Tech Equity and Health Equity

blog-pano-patient-data
Thought Leadership

CIOs Agree: It’s Time to Overcome Healthcare’s Reliance on Paper Data Exchange

blog-pano-connecting-the-dots
Thought Leadership

Getting Down to Business with AI: Key Observations from HLTH

cloud-faxing-pano
Thought Leadership

Introducing Bevey Talks #HealthIT

ai-prior-authorization
Thought Leadership

AI Can Help Solve Prior Auth’s Connectivity Problem

Thought Leadership

Scaling Your Services with eFax Corporate During Mergers and Acquisitions

blog-digital-fax-vital-in-healthcare (1)
Thought Leadership

Busting the Myth: Digital Fax is Still Vital in Healthcare—and AI is Transforming It

Legacy Fax Hardware
Thought Leadership

Why Ditching Your Legacy Fax Hardware Just Became an Immediate Priority

HITRUST CSF Certification
Thought Leadership

Why HITRUST CSF Certification Should Factor into Your Selection of a Cloud Fax Provider

blog-pano_Prior_Authorizations
Thought Leadership

CMS Issues Final Rule on Prior Authorizations. Here’s What It Means for You

cybersecurity threats
Thought Leadership

Virtual Panel on Healthcare Cybersecurity in the COVID Era: ‘The Devices Are Always Listening’

fax paper
Thought Leadership

Pandemic Exposes Healthcare’s Achilles’ Heel

information sharing
Thought Leadership

Healthcare Interoperability Part 2: Information Blocking and Preparing for Broader Information Flow

Healthcare Interoperability
Thought Leadership

Healthcare Interoperability Part 1: Debating the Role of APIs, plus FHIR’s Semantic Problem

previous arrow icon
next arrow icon
single