The more things change, the more they seem the same.

Back in 2002 I can recall interesting development. Among the industry standard bearers who presented to the packed audience of bankers, investors and executives, a strange new group of presenter emerged: Hospitals, both large and small attempted to “sell” their wares to the highest bidders.

These “wares” were indeed unusual, consisting of patient sample collections, or trying to turn pathology samples and medical records into cash during what was then the period of post genome hype. At that time those hospitals were acting on the premise of “whoever owns the patient wins”. In fact, all institutions that owned patient samples made their bet on this belief. The reality turned out to be different (except for a lucky few), in that no one was willing to pay for access to those patient collections. Genomic Health, which I worked for at the time, found another way to capitalize on archival patient collections.

Turn to this year. JPM 2012. Again, a new and very interesting group has emerged at the conference seeking to gain investor attention: Payors, managed care groups, and closed payer/provider networks. These include players like Aetna, Cigna, Geisinger, Humana, Intermountain Health, Kaiser Healthcare, and WellPoint.

Here, again, it seems that the strategy deployed is “whoever owns the patients, wins. Their new business models of command and control, limited access to their delivery system, health care accountability, buyer groups, and self interested arbiters of what migrates into the care paradigm. I can see how the generation of economic “rewards” that these groups promise get some real traction from investors and companies seeking to an edge in the age of cost containment, stringent resource controls, limited channel access, and of course brokered in deals.

Leaving this year’s conference. I contemplate whether Health Care Reform has inadvertently unleashed a new profit driven enterprise in the managed care industry? 
Maybe next year we will have a better sense of how successful these companies are in architecting a healthcare system that is both more profitable for them and beneficial to patients. Can these two goals co-exist? Or will their efforts reach the same conclusion the sample providers reached in 2002?

This question looms large, and is one that we look forward to helping this group of companies find the right answer to.

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Tags: Healthcare, Healthcare Reform, JP Morgan, JP Morgan Healthcare Conference 2012