3 Trends That Will Reshape Healthcare Transactions

Today’s sessions at AHLA’s Transactions Program made me reflect on the fact that time has taught us valuable lessons about what not to do in the future. An initial wave of hospital affiliations and acquisitions has occurred with mixed success.

Three recognizable trends were dicussed today that are reshaping healthcare transactions:

1. Losses on physicians without documented community need put hospitals at compliance risk. Solely relying on published compensation survey data doesn’t consider economics impacting the physician’s practiceand local market conditions.The “A” in mergers and acquisitions no longer stands for “acquisition”. It now stands for affiliations, associations, and ACOs.

2. Bigger is not always better. High volume does not guarantee better outcomes. Volume/outcome relationship varies and is usually not linear.

Innovation will guide transaction design and reshape the entire industry – where the profits are, who gets them, and through which business models. There are going to be significant opportunities, and I’m excited about the roles we play in helping healthcare leaders take advantage of them.