The ACG New York chapter held its annual healthcare conference at the Metropolitan Club on February 23, as always, on the last Thursday of the month. We attended, along with more than 400 others involved in the healthcare industry.
The evening’s topic, “The 2016 Election and Healthcare: What You Need to Know,” was obviously the big draw. Moderator Michael Gaffin, Marwood Group‘s political strategist and head of its Washington office, played his cards close to the vest during most of the panel, but did opine that the Republicans will be able to do whatever they want to the Affordable Care Act, because they’ve been talking about it so long.
On the panel were Robert Galvin, CEO of Equity Healthcare, a subsidiary of Blackstone Group, and executive director, healthcare services and chief medical officer at General Electric; Charlie Martin, chairman of Martin Ventures and former CEO of Vanguard Health Systems; and Johnese Spisso, president of UCLA Health and CEO of UCLA Health System.
The discussion was lively, particularly when Martin had the mic. Topics ranged from how much physicians dislike electronic health records to the problems those systems create for patients in hospitals that don’t integrate their systems. UCLA’s Spisso noted the huge amount of resources that hospitals waste on their revenue cycle management, and that non-healthcare personnel are often called in to clean up the mess.
The best investment opportunities, Galvin noted, are in trying to control costs for healthcare providers. Given the surge we’ve seen in deals targeting revenue cycle management companies, we would add that private equity firms have already figured this out.
If anyone in the audience was expecting to hear a clear prognostication of what will happen in the wake of “repeal and replace,” they were disappointed. There was speculation that congressional Republicans may make a few changes to the ACA, “declare victory,” and move on to other issues on their agenda, such as tax reform. On the topic of the managed care system, Martin declared emphatically, “We have to destroy the village in order to save it. That’s what has to happen.”
Finally, Gaffin asked the panelists to predict “what we’ll be talking about four years from now.” All dissembled in one way or another, until Martin ended the discussion. “I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, much less four years from now,” he said. “I’m paying attention to what’s happening today, and to invest in that.”
That got some laughter, but a lot of knowing nods from the audience.
