Electronic Health Reporter

In its annual top health industry issues of 2015 report, PwC’s Health Research Institute (HRI) anticipates that the $2.8 trillion U.S. healthcare sector will start feeling like a true market. HRI’s report explores the top 10 trends that are expected to shape the sector in 2015, including the expansion of do-it-yourself healthcare, how industry will adapt to the newly insured, and consumers’ competing desires for convenience and privacy. Top health industry issues of 2015 include insights from a survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers and interviews with health industry leaders.

“With consumers leading the way, bearing more costs and making more decisions, change is erupting throughout the health industry,” said Kelly Barnes, PwC’s U.S. health industries leader.  “Established healthcare companies and new entrants are rapidly developing cost-efficient products and services tailored directly to consumers.”

HRI’s top 10 issues for the health industry in the year ahead:

1. Do-it-yourself healthcare

U.S. physicians and consumers are ready to embrace a dramatic expansion of the high-tech, personal medical kit. Wearable tech, smartphone-linked devices and mobile apps will become increasingly valuable in care delivery.

2. Making the leap from mobile app to medical device

A proliferation of approved and portable medical devices in patients’ homes, and on their phones, makes diagnosis and treatment more convenient, redoubling the need for strong information security systems.

3. Balancing privacy and convenience

Privacy will lose ground to convenience in 2015 as patients adopt digital tools and services that gather and analyze health information.

4. High-cost patients spark cost-saving innovations

The soaring cost of care for Medicare and Medicaid “dual eligibles,” aging boomers and patients with co-morbidities will foster creative care delivery and management systems.

5. Putting a price on positive outcomes

With high-priced new products and specialty drugs slated to hit the market in 2015 increasing demand for new evidence and definitions of positive health outcomes are expected.

6. Open everything to everyone

New transparency initiatives targeting clinical trial data, real-world patient outcomes and financial relationships between physicians and pharmaceutical companies will improve patient care and open new opportunities.

7. Getting to know the newly insured

2015 will be a revelatory year for the U.S. health sector as a portrait of the newly-insured emerges, fostering better care management programs and shifting marketing strategies.

8. Physician extenders see an expanded role in patient care

Physician “extenders” are becoming the first line of care for many patients, as doctors delegate tasks, monitor patients digitally and enter into risk-based payment models.

9. Redefining health and well-being for the millennial generation

As the economy rebounds and baby boomers retire, employers and insurers look for fresh ways to engage, retain and attract the next generation of health consumers.

10. Partner to win

In 2015, joint ventures, open collaboration platforms and non-traditional partnerships will push healthcare companies out of the comfort zone toward new competitive strategies.

This year, as it has for the previous eight years, HRI surveyed 1,000 adults in the U.S. to identify their attitudes and concerns about their health and the healthcare system and to track changes in the way consumers use the system.

Key 2015 findings include:

•         Consumers remain concerned about the privacy of health data. Sixty-eight percent of respondents were concerned about smartphone health app data security; 78 percent about medical data security.

•         Physicians are interested in DIY healthcare products and services, perhaps even more than consumers. For example, while about one-third of U.S. consumers said they would use a home urinalysis device, more than one-half of physicians surveyed by HRI this year said would use data from such a device to prescribe medication or decide to see patients.

•         Many consumers are ready for non-physician caregivers to do more. Seventy-five percent of respondents said they were open to “extenders,” such as nurse practitioners or pharmacists, performing health services.

•         Consumers have mixed feelings about pharmaceutical and life sciences companies’ payments to clinicians. Pressures will grow from regulators and consumers for more transparency on payments.

HRI’s Top Health Industry Issues of 2015 list is informed by HRI research and the input of PwC’s Health Industries professionals who work with hospitals, physician groups, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, and employers. The report provides further analysis of the top issues for 2015 and outlines implications for key stakeholders.

For the full report, and other information and materials, visit: http://www.pwc.com/us/tophealthissues