Healthcare Investments to See Massive Jump in 2015

The healthcare industry is having tremendous success in all areas due to its open equity and demand for products and services. The following are some trends and high demand entities for 2015:

Biotech and Pharmaceuticals

Peter Reikes, vice chairman at Stifel, believes that healthcare's life science sector, specifically biotech and pharmaceuticals, will have the most growth and success in 2015. According to Reikes, last year was the highest number of IPOs in biotech and life sciences since 1978. The success of the life science division is in part due to the fact that businesses in healthcare are getting better at managing money, risk, clinical trials and regulatory hurdles, allowing drugs to move through the approval process quicker.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions are expected to continue to increase in the healthcare industry, especially between independent hospitals and health systems. M&A's will also be more common among post-acute care providers, as a result of readmission penalties that require hospitals to collaborate better with post-acute care providers.

Price Transparency

A new market has emerged for price transparency because of the increase in patients' out-of-pocket responsibility. Raymond Falci, managing director of Cain Brothers & Co. LLC, claims that businesses are aiming to assist their customers in the management of their access to the healthcare system.

Patient Engagement

Patient engagement increased significantly during 2014, and it is expected to continue to improve in 2015. The improvement in patient engagement is largely due to physicians investing in new ways to better help their patient because they are being held more accountable for patient care. Consequently, there will be more action in technologies such as personal health trackers and call centers.

ICD-10

People are anxiously awaiting the deadline for ICD-10, which is approaching October 1st, 2015. The transition to ICD-10 will definitely encourage more spending by physicians, hospitals and health systems, as they will need to hire trained coders.

Summary by MedicalGroups.com

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