Chronic care is too hard to navigate. It doesn’t have to be

For the millions of Americans living with a chronic condition, managing appointments, medications, symptoms, and treatment decisions can quickly become overwhelming. Yet these interactions are often treated as separate events rather than part of a connected care experience.

With as many as 3 in 4 adults living with at least one chronic condition, chronic care management has become one of healthcare's defining challenges. While access to care and clinical innovation remain essential, the ability to navigate care is increasingly shaping outcomes.

The next frontier of chronic care management
Too often, individuals are left to navigate a fragmented system on their own. While managing work, family responsibilities, and daily life, they are also coordinating across providers and interpreting complex information without clear guidance on next steps. Outreach, when it happens, can be duplicative, poorly timed, or disconnected from an individual's immediate needs, creating friction instead of clarity.

The issue is not a lack of engagement. It is a lack of coordination. Healthcare organizations often measure engagement through individual touchpoints such as appointments scheduled, prescriptions filled, or messages opened. But from a patient's perspective, those interactions are part of a single journey. When experiences feel disconnected, even well-intentioned interventions can create confusion instead of confidence.

Improving outcomes in chronic condition management will require more than clinical innovation. It will require eliminating friction across touchpoints and creating a connected foundation that supports people continuously, not just episodically.

Designing healthcare around real life
A better approach starts with a simple idea: healthcare should work the way people live.Increasingly, people expect healthcare experiences that are convenient, personalized and easy to navigate. Meeting those expectations is becoming an important part of improving the overall care experience.

That means moving beyond reactive care to anticipate needs, identify gaps, and help individuals take the next best action before issues escalate. Helping people successfully manage chronic conditions requires extending support beyond traditional clinical settings and into everyday life. This could mean making it easier to schedule appointments, track medications and care plans, or receive timely reminders through the channels people already use every day, whether through a mobile app, text message, wearable device, or voice-enabled technology.

Personalization that meets people where they are
Personalization is often discussed as a technology capability, but its real value lies in reducing complexity for the individual. The goal is not simply to collect more data. It is to deliver the right information, support, or guidance at the right moment in a way that helps people better understand and manage their care.

Achieving that requires a more complete view of an individual’s needs. Bringing together medical, pharmacy, behavioral, and social insights can help identify gaps in care, anticipate risks, and provide support that reflects not only clinical conditions, but realities of daily life.

Because no two individuals navigate ongoing health needs in the same way, flexible and personalized approaches are often more effective than one-size-fits-all solutions.

Continuous support that builds confidence
For people with more complex health needs, support must be continuous and responsive. Chronic condition management is not a series of isolated interactions, but an ongoing journey that often requires coordination across providers, treatments, and care settings. Helping people successfully navigate that journey requires support that extends beyond traditional points of care.

When done well, this approach creates a more connected experience and helps individuals feel more confident in managing their health, making informed decision.

Shantanu Agrawal, M.D., is chief health officer at Elevance Health. Saurabh Tandon, MBA, is vice president and chief experience officer at Elevance Health.