Cost vs. utilization. Primary care tomorrow. Hospitals = generics.
Blurrrrred Liiiiines
In one of the more recent and interesting healthcare announcements, a consortium of 300 hospitals, including Intermountain Healthcare and Ascension, are getting into the generic drug business.
If drug companies thought generics flooding their market was already bad, this is going to make things a lot worse. If hospitals can prove they can do it effectively (which is still tbd), pharmacies, insurance companies, etc. have the incentive to get in the mix too.
This is especially true for drugs that have gone off-patent and target a small patient population. They’ve managed to avoid competitors since their target market is small and other companies don’t want to dedicate resources here.
*cough* Daraprim *cough*
Crossing enemy territory
We’ve talked at length about different health stakeholders dipping their toes into other areas of healthcare, but why now? I see 4 distinct reasons:
1) As the industry heavily consolidated on all sides, pharma/hospitals/med devices/etc. could keep pricing higher. This is one reason why prices kept getting higher even though usage decreased. At a certain cost, it makes sense to try to do it yourself.
2) You can only consolidate so much in one space, as evidenced by massive antitrust suits against Aetna-Humana. Eventually you have to find a new business line to expand into.
3) New competitors like tech giants are coming for their lunch. By combining different goods and services, health incumbents can sell a bundle and also make their businesses more defensible.
4) If you control the patient relationships, you can control their costs and make more money if you take on more risk. That’s why everyone that’s patient-facing is becoming an insurance company.
I’ll be speaking at HLTH in Vegas May 6-9, 2018. Come find me if you’re going to be there!
HLTH is bringing together 2,000 attendees, 350+ CEOs and founders, and 300+ speakers to talk about how the health ecosystem is being reshaped. Their goal is to bring different stakeholders in one room to discuss the industry moving forward, from providers, payers, employers, and pharma services to disruptive startups, investors, government, media, and industry analysts.
I also got this nifty caricature! I only look marginally less cartoonish in real life.
