The coming of a new year for many of my friends and family means a focus on health, wellness and self-improvement. That same focus applies to the healthcare community near and far as innovators, investors and established healthcare leaders descend upon San Francisco for the annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference. The flurry of activity that will occur in conference rooms, hotels and coffee shops in the greater 415 area code will play a pivotal role in shaping healthcare innovation and the investment agendas for many constituents in 2016. As we start the New Year it’s a good time to reflect on 2015 and look forward to the themes impacting 2016.
At this point last year, TripleTree was focused on a handful of themes including cost containment and care coordination, quality enhancing care delivery models and the acceleration of technology-enabled solutions. Looking back on the healthcare M&A landscape in 2015, it’s readily apparent that stakeholders across the continuum were acutely focused on these strategic priorities.
As we look to 2016, TripleTree is keenly focused on three key trends transforming healthcare:
- Shift to value. With a push from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the momentum around value-based reimbursement/care is gaining traction in the marketplace. From an estimated 50% of Medicare payments transitioning into alternative payment models by 2018 to the managed care marketplace pushing the value-based transformation even more aggressively, we look forward to engaging with players across the industry as the provider and payer landscape tackles this paradigm shift.
- Engaged healthcare consumers. 65% of consumers now demand control of decisions concerning their health while nearly half of employers are contemplating a switch to defined contribution health plans. Over the last ten years employers have driven a six-fold increase in the participation rate of consumer-driven health plans. There has never been a more interesting time to empower and engage consumers in the management of their health and well-being, while significantly improving the consumer’s ability to financially support their place as the third largest payer in healthcare beyond Medicare and Medicaid.
- Increasing role of government. It is estimated that an incremental 61 million lives will be impacted by some sort of government-sponsored health program in the coming years. To enable broader access the government is focused on optimizing reimbursement models and improving quality initiatives that both lower costs and improve outcomes. The increased role of government creates unprecedented opportunity for innovators and financial sponsors in the HCIT and healthcare services sectors.
We look forward to seeing and hearing from many of you in San Francisco as we align and engage with you on these important themes throughout 2016.
See you in San Francisco!