Every yr, the well being care business behaves an increasing number of like a balloon: Squeeze one aspect, and the opposite expands. Firms that have been as soon as simply insurers or simply pharmacies are tacking on new enterprise traces. The thought is that when revenue inevitably will get squeezed in a single, it’ll increase in one other.
That development of vertical integration was on full show in 2023, a yr when the nation’s largest pharmacy chain purchased a main care supplier, and the most important personal insurer branched additional into house well being. It’s no coincidence margins are being examined in each of these corporations’ core companies.
Hospitals, in the meantime, continued to push the boundaries of empire enlargement — their leaders following by on their guarantees to develop market energy. They proceed to say scale is the very best treatment for anemic income development.