Thursday, January 13 was the last day of the virtual J.P. Morgan Annual Healthcare Conference for 2022. And since the conference was virtual, what better topic to start us off today than a consideration of the new Virtual-First trend that surfaced in 2021. We’ll follow that with a dive onto the couch to consider the conference’s mental health offerings and where the behavioral health sector is heading.
Continue Reading Day Four Notes for the 40th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, 2022

Have you been working out recently? We hope so, for today, Day Three of the 40th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, was definitely a day for heavy lifting.  Got a challenge that seems overwhelming? A problem that’s big enough to totally scare other folks? Do you eat triathlons for lunch? Well, then you’re going to like the Day Three companies. Let’s talk about fixing the huge American diabetes problem, providing better healthcare for Medicaid and dual eligible beneficiaries, and helping people beat cancer.  All that, plus a COVID-19 thought exercise…
Continue Reading Day Three Notes for the 40th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, 2022

According to a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) study reported in Health Affairs on March 24, 2020, national health care spending reached $3.81 trillion in 2019 and is projected to increase to $4.01 trillion by the end of 2020.  CMS also projects that by 2028, health care spending will reach $6.19 trillion, and will account for 19.7% of GDP, up from 17.7% in 2018.
Continue Reading Venture Capital And Private Equity Investors Take Note: Primary Care May Be The Next Behavioral Health

It has been widely reported that healthcare mergers and acquisitions are off to a strong start this year after ending a record-breaking year in 2017. In fact, the healthcare press this year has been replete with articles extolling the “good news” about healthcare investment and transaction activity. For example:

  1. As reported by Kaufman Hall, the number of “hospital and health system transactions announced in 2017 totaled 115, up 13% over 2016 and the highest number recorded in recent history.” Kaufman Hall, “2017 in Review: The Year M&A Shook the Healthcare Landscape,” January 29, 2018;
  2. According to data from Bloomberg, the total deal value of healthcare transactions announced in the first quarter of 2018 is approximately $156 billion. “Health-Care M&A Balloons in Busiest Start in More than a Decade,” by Manuel Baigorri (March 28, 2018) (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-28/health-care-m-a-booming-in-busiest-start-in-more-than-a-decade). Not surprisingly, Bloomberg’s transaction value data also shows that first quarter 2018 is the busiest first quarter in more than ten years; and
  3. As reported last month by Forbes in, “Why Private Equity Loves Retail Healthcare from 2012 to 2017,” Nirad Jain, Kara Murphy and Jeremy Martin, April 4, 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/baininsights/2018/04/04/why-private-equity-loves-retail-healthcare/#4883ce071924, “From 2012 to 2017, the number of deals involving retail health companies—those that operate freestanding health-related outlets like dental clinics or urgent care facilities—has soared, increasing at a compound annual rate of 34% in the North American market.” Citing, the Bain & Company’s Global Private Equity Report 2018 (http://go.bain.com/global-private-equity-report-2018.html), the authors write that the growth in retail healthcare transactions is, in some significant part, a function of the fact that, “retail health is a fragmented, high-margin sector with strong growth characteristics. In a sea of high prices, it still offers targets at reasonable multiples and many opportunities to unlock substantial value.”

Continue Reading The Shape of Healthcare: Blockbuster Mergers, Retail Healthcare, and Marcus Welby, M.D