It’s been more than two years since the Obamacare launch, and while the pundits of healthcare continue with the argument of whether it has been working or not, there has something radically different which has been occurring at the same time. Despite the thoughts of all the industry specialists, the Affordable Care Act has been in fact shaping the healthcare industry of the US, overhauling business models of major subsectors that had previously remain unchanged.
Mary Tolan thinks that ever since the US President had announced the act two years ago, all healthcare professionals has gone on to change their business as if their livelihoods would be greatly affected if they didn’t. She thought that most of them were well aware that very soon they would be compensated not for filling up hospital beds, but for keeping the patients out of the hospital all together. Since the incentives structure changed, from patient volumes to patient outcomes, Mary A. Tolan of Accretive Health thinks that it affected the existing health system in a profound way. However, one of the major thing that it did was to open up opportunities for investors.
On both the local and national levels, the pay for service model was to shift to pay for performance model, which actually meant new revenue channels for companies who were previously not involved in the care delivery of the patient. Most of the health systems has come up with urgent care clinics and has stationed hundreds of community offices around the country to cater to those who need help. This is in fact good, as per Mary Tolan Accretive Health, for it now pays to keep patients healthy.
Just as service providers were changing their models and methods for reaching to patients, they were also changing the way that they would receive payment. Mary Tolan of Accretive Health found that more and more of these healthcare service providers are actually choosing options like that of a bundled payment, including one-time fees for a single service that would encompass the entire procedure. Others are also opting for capitation which would pay providers flat fee per patient no matter the number of times the patient is being treated, which actually creates an incentive for the preventive care.
Mary A Tolan knows that these ideas has been around long before passing of the act, but the act’s persistent emphasis on pay for care metrics and low cost but quality care has finally been taken seriously by all those involved in providing for services. Being an investor, Mary Tolan is keeping one eye on the publicly traded health systems, as she understands that the act also has changed that. The sector is now seeing mergers and acquisitions occurring every now and then.
Moreover, the transactions has been upped by 200% since the introduction of the act. The hospitals have also accounted for one in every six dollars being spent on corporate deals in 2014. Besides these changes abruptly affecting the overall industry, there are also healthcare providers who are looking forward to move into the high growth businesses like long-term care and home care.
