Commentary
MEET THE CARE DELIVERY REGION – CONSUMERS GRAB MORE POWER
The Care Delivery region has brought back three teams from 2024 – VBC, Preventative Care and a particularly spectacular team from last year, Women’s Health. Additionally, several teams have recruited veteran players, making this region perhaps the most experienced and well-trained in the 2025 tournament.
A macrotrend that has tracked across the entire tournament history is the expansion of consumerism, and the Care Delivery region is home to many of these trends, such as Patients Retake the Pharmacy, Hospital-at-Home Programs and the Longevity Boom. Consumers are willing and able to take more control of their health, and that change in consumer behavior is sculpting permanent contours on the business of healthcare.
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THE EIGHT TRENDS AND THE FIRST FOUR MATCHUPS
The first bout of the region will be a good one – number one seed, Focus on Women’s Health, returns from 2024, having gone all the way to the Top Four last year. This trend is largely anticipated to go far again due to the greater utilization of healthcare by women as compared to men: treatment related to reproduction and menopause, in addition to higher rates of chronic diseases, autoimmune disorders and mental health conditions. Taking on this highly competitive team is Continued Focus on Preventative Care (8), another return player that made its tournament debut last year with a solid performance and is not one to count out. Conditions like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease drive high healthcare spending and lost productivity while also being largely avoidable. Consequently, prevention has captured the attention of employers and the new federal administration.
Our next matchup features Access and Capacity (2), which reflects challenges resulting from workforce shortages and a lack of investment in rural areas, where access is a crisis-level issue. Rising industry stability suggests that healthcare organizations may be increasing investments to improve access and capacity, very possibly through the use of artificial intelligence and other technology. This trend will duke it out with Hospital-at-Home Programs (7), a trend that aims to free up inpatient hospital beds and improve patient outcomes. As much as 25% of the total cost of care for Medicare fee-for-service and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries could shift from traditional facilities to the home by 2025.
Number three seed VBC Enablement Re-emerges with Strength brings to the court a VBC market that is predicted to consolidate, as competition will push some VBC enablement companies to refine their approaches, leading to a more streamlined market with fewer but stronger players. It remains to be seen if this tournament stalwart can stand against the much younger and scrappier Patients Retake the Pharmacy (6), a frontrunner of the consumerism movement that is giving rise to online pharmacies and direct-to-patient initiatives by pharmaceutical companies.
Our final skirmish sets Tying Senior Living and Long-Term Care (4) against Longevity Boom (5), a matchup that many hoped would arise later in the tournament to allow both trends to advance further. Among the latest industrial sectors to be reshaped by the Baby Boomer generation, senior living facilities and healthcare services are moving toward each other to address the needs of this massively influential population. Simultaneously, the growing societal interest in a longer lifespan and “healthspan” is driving another boom: a global wellness market for products, practices and technology that improve fitness, sleep and nutrition.
Read about the trends in the other three regions: Healthcare Landscape, Payment and Technology.
What trends do you think are the biggest healthcare change-makers?
Join the conversation on LinkedIn and make your predictions by March 14.