Health reform may benefit certain businesses a great deal, such as organizations that provide preventive care or any that can help businesses cut their costs.
These might include companies that provide technological resources businesses can use in wellness programs, companies that run fitness or smoking-cessation programs and similar organizations, according to USA Today. Such companies are likely to experience a surge in demand for their services or products, partly as an indirect result of the effects health reform is having on care providers themselves.
Among the many changes which are occurring right now is the rise of accountable care organizations, telehealth and other healthcare technologies. Administrative and technological changes will have a strong impact on healthcare, and potentially on every business that sponsors employee benefits as a result. Companies which were already going to great effort to limit or counteract the growth of their healthcare expenses may push even harder now, and their efforts will likely grow more effective in some ways. Wellness programs are still new to many businesses, but experience with them is growing, which should allow more employers to use them effectively.
The same is true of healthcare organizations and electronic record systems, as well as other technological developments. As medical professionals and others grow accustomed to the many changes taking place, they should be able to better take advantage of the benefits, while minimizing the disadvantages. At the same time, some provisions of health reform could broaden coverage significantly, so all of these alterations will impact more people.
Accountable care, other alterations coming
Anticipating the coming changes, some investors are putting more of their resources behind healthcare organizations. One told the news source he is investing significantly in a company which tracks employees' health habits with information technology and encourages them to attend annual health exams, have a professional check them for chronic diseases and deal with potential health issues.
Business and healthcare stakeholders noted that some were already pushing accountable care before government health reforms, but the federal push should accelerate the process. The change has the potential to improve both care quality and costs, and that potential will become more attractive as it is made more apparent.
