For years, prevention has been universally acknowledged in healthcare. But despite all the innovations, early interventions still struggle to win budget allocations and long-term institutional support. Why? Because they often fail to show immediate returns. For payors and providers accustomed to short-term KPIs, preventive investments can look like sunk costs, when, in fact, they are deferred dividends.
However, timing is everything in healthcare economics. The true Return of Investment (ROI) of early detection, screening, and behavioral interventions often becomes visible only when measured over multi-year timelines or across larger populations. Previously, we had already covered why prevention is essential to implement now. Today, based on the chapter of our Paybook “Before It Hurts”, in this blog post, we explore why early and periodic screening, diagnosis, and treatment (EPSDT) is essential for system sustainability, and how digital infrastructure can bridge the evidence gap for prevention-first strategies.
Unlike emergency care or curative treatments, prevention often lacks a dramatic "moment of truth." You don’t see the heart attack that didn’t happen, the diabetic complication that wasn’t triggered, or the mental health crisis that never escalated. This lack of visibility poses real obstacles when it comes to funding and prioritization.
Because prevention doesn't deliver immediate results, it faces three core structural disadvantages:
This structural bias means that even well-evidenced interventions, such as colorectal screenings, pre-diabetes management programs, or youth mental health monitoring, fail to gain widespread traction. The issue is especially acute among vulnerable populations, who are both at higher risk and less likely to receive proactive care. Reframing prevention as a long-term cost-saving and health-enhancing strategy requires infrastructure capable of tracking, projecting, and demonstrating that value over time.
EPSDT programs, particularly focused on child and adolescent populations, emphasize the transformative potential of preventive care. These programs impose standardized medical checkups, screenings for developmental delays, vision and hearing evaluations, and behavioral health assessments. While these interventions may not yield visible outcomes within a year, they reshape long-term health trajectories by catching problems when they are still highly treatable.
Key benefits of EPSDT include:
According to the WHO’s 2022 survey, while mental health is considered a national priority in most European countries, only about one in three has established dedicated funding for preventive measures. Yet the economic case for early action is strong: research by McDaid et al. suggests that for every £1 invested in early prevention, particularly in youth-focused and workplace programs, returns can reach as high as £10.
While early interventions are rarely visible in year-one spreadsheets, their financial and health impact becomes more pronounced over three, five, or ten years. Cost-curve bending doesn’t just happen in theory, it requires a data infrastructure capable of tracking individual and population health over extended timelines. This includes linking real-world data across providers, time zones, and systems to support continuity and accountability.
In sum, EPSDT is a prime example of how prevention pays off, when backed by digital tools that make its value transparent.
Modern health data infrastructure is revolutionizing how we approach preventive care. Historically, early interventions were viewed as intangible, difficult to quantify, and often excluded from high-priority budget lines. But today, digital tools make the unseen visible, transforming what was once anecdotal into measurable economic impact.
To connect prevention with financial outcomes, we need:
By integrating longitudinal health data with real-world evidence, stakeholders, from payors to providers, can now quantify the downstream cost savings and improved outcomes generated by preventive measures. What used to be speculative is now demonstrable, turning early action into a justifiable investment.
The economics of prevention aren’t broken, they’re just slow. But with the right digital infrastructure, early intervention becomes not only cost-effective but clinically indispensable. For insurers and healthcare platforms, the key is to track the future impact today.
That’s where Thryve comes in. With our API and data infrastructure, it becomes easier to make early interventions visible, measurable, and scalable. Whether it’s catching early cardiovascular risk signals, flagging sleep patterns tied to mental health, or monitoring recovery after interventions, Thryve’s solutions empower payors and providers to act before conditions escalate. Our platforms enables:
If you’re building prevention-first healthcare solutions, Thryve gives you the data infrastructure to prove and improve their impact.
Book a demo with Thryve to see how your prevention strategy can deliver measurable ROI.
Download our Playbook for free here!
