Private sector continuum of care compared across markets
For our graph of the week, we look at the private corporate hospital and care sector’s position on the continuum of care, from primary care and outpatient through to rehabilitation and diagnostics.
There is general agreement that private hospital providers need to diversify along the continuum of care in order to shield themselves from cost containment, notably in inpatient acute care as payors cut tariffs for historically lucrative elective care. The graph below shows where this has actually happened and where large, corporate hospital operators are shut out completely.
A large bubble indicates the sector is a core competency for big, corporatised hospital groups. A small one shows they have little or no presence in it. The focus is on the largest hospital operators but the elderly care giants Orpea and Korian’s move into rehabilitation is also considered for that column.
Primary care tends to be the most off-limits to the big for-profits. The three exceptions in the countries listed here are Romania, where an underfunded public sector means those with cash are used to paying for basic healthcare; Sweden, where “proximity care” has successfully been entered by acute operators like Capio over the last decade; and the GCC, where the countries have invited the private sector in to build infrastructure from the ground up, including ‘spokes’ for their hospital units. One source expects France to join them as regulatory change opens up the sector.
Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland are the only countries where there is a substantial private rehabilitation sector, an increasingly important sector for big hospital and elderly care operators. Diagnostics is big business for the big hospital groups in countries with high scans-per-capita like Turkey, as well as Romania and the GCC, even if a lot of it is outsourced to other companies.
We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to Cameron Murray or call 0207 183 3779.
