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Outpatient (ex Primary Care)

 

Praktikertjanst hit by new tax laws

Sweden’s largest primary care and dentist firm is likely to be hard hit by new tax laws, which means that its member doctors and dentists will see their tax burden more or less double. That could lead to another takeover bid or defections. Sales grew 4.7% to SEK9.7bn (€1bn) in 2013.

FREE BLOG So who is buying what in Africa?

Recent weeks have seen renewed interest in old mature markets. Companies like Life Healthcare of South Africa and Australian player Ramsay Healthcare have bought in Europe. So who is buying in Africa and what assets have they picked up? The big buyer has been Abraaj Capital, the Dubai private equity house, which sold its stake in Acibadem, the upmarket Turkish chain to IHH in 2013. So what has it bought? In total, it has now made six investments.

Hopes for occupational healthcare fade in Poland

Hopes that the corporate subscription healthcare model in Poland could quadruple to €8bn have faded. Our sources say that an awkward silence suggests that we won't see action before 2015 elections.

Fresenius set to scoop up European lab group

Dialysis group Fresenius MC is starting due diligence to buy a large European lab group, say two sources. The move would enable Fresenius to build a new leg alongside its dialysis business, which faltered in 2013.

Interview: Kustaa Piha, CEO and Founder, Med Group

Kustaa, 35, founded Med Group in 2008 and claims it is now Finland’s largest player in ambulances and homecare. EBITDA came to ¢4.5m on sales of €39m in 2013 and sales should rise 28% to €50m in 2014. He explains the focus behind a company which has everything from ambulances to homecare and from dentistry to primary care, outlines Med Group’s new homecare concept and talks about how reform is likely to open up the Finnish market.

Five super-regions promise radical reform for Finland

The Finnish government, a coalition between the centre right and the social democrats, is proposing that all publicly paid for healthcare and care services should be procured by five new super regions. They would take over purchasing these services from the 320 municipalities who handle elderly and primary care and the 20 hospital regions who run acute care. But will the new regions actually take over the public nursing homes and hospitals or merely procurement of services? The move is seen as a potential bonanza for the private sector. Is this correct? We talk to Prof. Juhani Lehto about the odds on change.

Opportunities in East Europe

A panel at Healthcare Europa looked at what opportunities were opening up in the three of the largest East European markets - Russia, Poland and Romania. We report.

Centene set to buy Ribera Salud

Centene, the US Medicaid specialist, is set to buy Spanish hospital Ribera Salud, the company behind the pioneering Alzira model in which a consortium of private operators run primary and secondary care for the public payor for a region of 250,000-300,000 people. It plans to then export Alzira to countries as varied as Latin America, the UK and even North America.

Report: IT is finally giving operators the edge

It has been a tough five years for private healthcare in Europe. but what was noticeable at Healthcare Europa, the only annual conference for the sector, was the spring in the step of the CEOs of large operators such as BMI, Terveystalo and Euromedic. New web and big data applications are finally proving that they can grow patient numbers by 10% or more, demonstrate and measure quality and improve efficiency. The three things which stood out from this event were, firstly, clear signs that new IT is impacting the sector, secondly, the growing confidence of management teams in private companies that they can deploy this to good effect, and thirdly, a sense that the public sector was often completely incapable of rolling out similar solutions.

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