The healthcare industry could see significant changes in 2025, whether it's digital health, prescription drug costs, or health insurance.
This was revealed by three executives from healthcare venture capital LRVHealth. They shared five predictions for 2025 with MedCity News.
1. Digital health investment market: The past decade has seen a significant influx of capital into digital health companies, but this will “slowly burn out,” predicted Keith Figlioli, managing partner at LRVHealth. This means that many venture-funded companies disappear by going out of business or merging with other companies, which means that “most of these companies are more product-centric than enterprise-centric.'' “It's a result of the fact that there was,” he said.
Filioli added that he expects the healthcare M&A market to “wake up” in 2025, with many announcements at the JPM Healthcare conference.
“Thereafter, we will see a strong recovery throughout the year, and there is a possibility that the IPO market will open up to healthcare companies in the second half of the year,” he said. “With this movement on the M&A front, dollars will start flowing back into LPs.”
2. Artificial Intelligence: Figlioli predicts that by 2025, as the reality of AI in healthcare sets in, many pilot projects will fail and only a few sustainable use cases will succeed and scale. I'm doing it. Ambient scribing and pre-authentication are two areas where AI could get a lot of attention.
“We are also uncovering some true clinical decision support use cases as more pilots begin to test clinician augmentation and the support they really need to deliver high-quality, safe care.” “Sho,” he said. “Although it will take time, these early signs on the clinical decision support front suggest a potential path to long-term solutions to health care worker burnout and health workforce shortages. ”
3. Less focus on value-based care: In 2025, care delivery innovators will shift their focus from value-based care solutions to an emphasis on clinical efficiency, predicts LRVHealth partner Ellen Harlacher. did. However, she said she believes the healthcare industry will eventually move to value-based care, but it will take a long time.
“Clinical efficiency innovations, including top-of-the-line licensing strategies, point-of-care optimization, virtual care, and clinical enhancements, will create new access points, address clinical gaps, and engage patients in the short term.” is interesting,' and is reimbursable in a fee-for-service environment,'' Herlacher said. “And, incidentally, improvements in access, patient experience, unit costs, and throughput will enable clinical companies to succeed when negotiating value-based care contracts.”
4. Changes in health insurance coverage: Herlacher expects to see changes in the ACA exchanges as well. More small and medium-sized employers may offer Individual Insurance Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA) programs. ICHRA allows employers to provide employees with tax-free money each month that they can use to purchase medical services based on their needs.
In addition, the incoming Trump administration could cut Medicaid funding, “creating another wave of migration from populations traditionally covered by Medicaid,” she said.
5. Pharmacy spending: Prescription drug pricing will become a greater focus in 2025, especially due to rising costs from new therapies to treat illnesses, said Josh Fram, managing partner at LRVHealth. . PBMs and 340B programs will be under particular scrutiny. Policies such as the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program will also be closely monitored.
“All of these factors will continue to put pressure on traditional pharmacy business models, but they also provide fertile ground for innovation in new pharmacy pricing, distribution and fulfillment models that emphasize access and transparency. '' he said. “The desire to bring more therapeutics to patients has stimulated a new wave of investment in access and patient services by pharmaceutical companies, which in turn has led to increased access and therapeutic care for these companies and ultimately for patients. This will lead to more direct and creative partnerships with health care providers who have an impact on their lives.”
Photo: zhuweiyi49, Getty Images
