JP Morgan Healthcare Conference Unbundled: Something for Everyone?

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH

The 31st annual get together of biotech, pharma and an eclectic litany of publically held healthcare company and many impressive tax exempt health system peeps was my first albeit from a somewhat disadvantaged, i.e., ‘crasher’, status. Yet, in the overall program mix there seemed to be something for everybody from payor to provider, to device manufacturer and distributor, clinical research organizations, academia, it’s primary audience the investment community and even the maturing health technology start-up world, i.e., AliveCor, et al.

For a compete agenda including archived webcasts of select presos, decks, etc., click here. Access is public and free, but registration is required. There is enough information to keep a blogger, journalist or consultant busy parsing out market relevant information for weeks if not more depending upon your level of interest and willingness to search and retrieve content available elsewhere on the web. Yet, I will drill into portions of the overall program and petition any of you who have access to content shared elsewhere that may complete or amplify the narrative.

The $4.42 billion (‘I think we overpaid..’) acquisition of Healthcare Partners by DaVita in May 2012 sheds unique insights on the developing operational and business model footprints emerging inside the accountable care industry. Denver, Colorado based specialty healthcare provider DaVita is a market leader in renal dialysis, and Torrance, California domiciled Healthcare Partners are defacto thought leaders and best practice innovator’s in the risk savvy medical group or physician led integrated delivery space.

Many questioned the synergy when DaVita tendered their offer for Healthcare Partners wondering why in the world would a specialty care provider go after a California based medical group with risk contracts with HMOs (there are considerably more contracting and other assets, but this was the oversimplified characterization of what was on the table). Yet, the diversification from renal care into general acute if not the entire care continuum given the move into accountable care or otherwise stated as the shift from volume to value paradigm, the acquisition made perfect sense.

So consider the reporting by Kent Thiry, DaVita’s CEO/Chairman and co-chair Robert Margolis, MD, as peeling back the curtain of accountable care strategy under the emerging incentives and rule changes provisioned under the staged implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

The webcast is here, and the deck is here.

Enjoy!