United States health systems are shifting focus from hospital acquisitions to the purchase of clinics, physician practices and digital resources, according to an Accenture report.
Accenture researched more than 1,500 healthcare provider acquisitions between 2006 and 2015.
Here are five key points:
1. The time period saw much deal-making as healthcare companies sought to gain economics of scale, shifted to value-based care and invested in healthcare IT.
2. Acquisition volume in the first five months of 2015 proved record-breaking at $241 billion.
3. By 2018, vertical acquisitions of clinics or physician practices will hit 84 percent of the total provider acquisition volume.
4. Digital acquisitions of health companies specializing in analytics or cloud, for example, will reach 8 percent of total provider acquisition volume by 2018, up from 1 percent in 2014.
5. Traditional acquisitions of hospitals decreased to 21 percent in 2014, down from 32 percent in 2006. By 2018, these horizontal acquisitions will account for 6 percent of total provider acquisition volume.
"Rather than viewing deals as one-off opportunities, the best-prepared executives will systematically manage a potential deal as a product of the whole," said Kristin Ficery, Accenture managing director of health provider consulting.