This Frost & Sullivan report entitled “The Transformation of the American Hospital: 2015-2020,” is well worth reading.

Tanvir Jaikishen, a senior analyst for the firm, observed about the report’s conclusions:

“The ACA, reduction in Medicare funding and reimbursements shifting from fee-for-service to value-based payments have impacted the way hospitals compete in the U.S. health system. Additionally, declining inpatient volumes and lowering reimbursements are fueling a wave of strategic acquisitions and partnerships aimed at increasing the patient base and improving negotiating power with insurers.”

The transformation, of course, includes more and more hospital and hospital systems focusing their acquisitions on non-acute-care holdings, such as retail clinics and physician practices.

The report also predicted that  more hospitals and  systems will create their own in-house insurance plans to help expand their patient base. But there are many difficult complications involved in entering the insurance business.

To read the report, please hit this link.