MSP News
Global Industry Analysts Report Tracks Growth of Managed Healthcare Services Market
February 13, 2012
Global Industry Analysts, Inc. (GIA) has released a new report on the growth and progress of the managed healthcare services market. “Managed Health Care Services: A Global Outlook” covers services growth in developed countries due to the escalating costs of delivering medical care.
The GIA report uses factors like discounted rates negotiated by employers with managed care providers, steadily lowering premiums and the large size of MCOs to make up its findings. The report finds that a combination of these factors has contributed to the evolution of the managed care model as the backbone of the healthcare system.
The GIA also finds that a shift toward preventative healthcare measures, the increasing need for cost control and the introduction of evidence-based medicine have served as major contributors to the growing demand for a variety of managed care plans.
Managed healthcare has continued to grow despite any adverse impacts from economic recession, and the market is in fact recovering along with the resurgence in global economies, according to the report. It states that while the recession led employers to re-evaluate their existing health policy plans, insurers are now seeking to play a bigger part in managing the cost and care of their members in an effort to survive the difficult economic climate.
The report finds that the trend toward Managed Care Organizations (MCOs), while started in the US, has steadily moved toward other regions as well. Since the managed healthcare market is now on the brink of saturation in the US, providers are looking toward expanding their presence in other underserved regions like Latin America.
Prospects in various healthcare plans were affected by the recession, according to the report, and a majority of employers cut back on costs as health benefits became increasingly unaffordable. Now that the economy is in recovery mode, the managed healthcare market is expected to rebound with robust growth. Enrollments in managed care also increased, driven by a push by states to enroll individuals in managed healthcare plans in an effort to cut costs.
A rising number of senior citizens requiring long-term care also boosted managed care program enrollments, as well as a number of other factors including restoration of various programs and an increase in provider payment rates. Additional factors include changes to increase eligibility as well as implementations of various marketing strategies to increase enrollments.
Edited by
Jennifer Russell
