Problems Plaguing Healthcare Present Promising Pursuits
You cannot scan your internet home page, watch the news or pick up a magazine without being inundated with “Healthcare” headliners.
And what are the key stakeholders of healthcare (consumers, providers and payors) most concerned about? Their common concerns include cost reduction and containment, accurate billing, access to quality care, “whole person” approach to healthcare management and better outcomes – just to name a few.
Where’s the Opportunity?
Given healthcare reform is on the national agenda, where are the business opportunities?
MarketsandMarkets reported that the Healthcare IT systems market is expected to grow to $53.8 billion by 2014.
Capital IQ & TM Capital reported that while total M&A transactions declined by over 20% in 2008, healthcare IT M&A transactions grew by nearly 13%. Increased healthcare IT M&A activity among strategic and financial buyers is expected to grow with emphasis in mid-market activity.
Key healthcare IT investment areas may include capability building to:
• enable consumers to conveniently view all their confidential records regardless of the provider(s) they emanated from
• enable providers to share patient history with each other for consultations and better patient care and outcomes
• stay ahead of the explosive growth in recordkeeping that will be experienced by providers and payors
• enable providers and payors to better analyze data through the use of tools such as analytics, modeling, query and reporting
• streamline and improve business processes used by provider and payors
Given the myriad of technologies and applications it will take to address the challenges above, integration across systems will become a huge issue and may be addressed by a mix of approaches such as service oriented architecture (see article below), software as service and standards-based information exchanges.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. To learn more:
• Attend the ACG Boston Fall Conference, November 17, 2009 – Register today!
• TM Capital published: ”HIT Industry Spotlight, February 2009” – http://www.tmcapital.com/uploads/Research/12_1.pdf
• IBM published: “SOA for Health Plans: New Connections for New Business Models” – http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/index.wss/ibvstudy/gbs/a1029406?cntxt=a1000056 – Read about 3 cases where Service-Oriented Architecture was an effective means of integrating healthcare applications, technology infrastructures and healthcare stakeholders.
• MarketsandMarkets, a research and consulting firm published for fee: “Healthcare Information Technology Systems Market to be Worth $53.8 Billion by 2014” – http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/healthcare-information-technology-market%20-136.html
About Private Equity
Alice Sloan of Grant Thornton, who served on ACG Boston’s Board, provides this paper for your insight: “Private Equity in the Post-Boom Era: What’s Next?” Investments made in the next few years are expected to generate significantly better returns than those of the recent past: http://www.grantthornton.com/portal/site/gtcom/menuitem.91c078ed5c0ef4ca80cd8710033841ca/?vgnextoid=8e27d4f9777ec110VgnVCM1000003a8314acRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&utm_source=Homepage%2Btext%20link&utm_medium=website%2Blink&utm_campaign=Oct%2B26
Carol Bergeron
