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Health Care Is Reforming, Just Not in Washington

Health Care Is Reforming, Just Not in Washington

(Bloomberg View) -- As lawmakers in Washington continue their debate over how to modify the U.S. health-insurance market, health-care investors and business leaders around the world need to see past the political drama and run their businesses with a view toward improving value in health care. If they succeed, it will make a bigger difference for the cost and quality of care -- globally and for most Americans -- than whatever action is taken by Congress.

We've just finished a study involving 300 senior health-care executives from leading companies in health-care services, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical devices, along with top investors in the field. And it's clear that they see big changes in the years ahead, driven largely by pricing pressure across the industry.

The pricing pressures, in turn, are expected to drive innovation. Interestingly, in the coming years, changes in how health-care payments are made are expected to be the most important form of innovation, though scientific breakthroughs will also play a critical role. What's more, these leaders expect health-care companies to engage in new partnerships and collaborations -- including with nontraditional competitors in the technology world, such as Google, IBM, Apple and Fitbit.

Most surprisingly, we found strong expectations that value-based payments for medical care will displace the traditional fee-for-service model, transforming the industry over the next five to ten years. Despite doubts after the recent presidential election that the movement away from fee-for-service would continue, more than half of American executives and four-fifths of American investors who responded to the survey after Nov. 8 said they believe the majority of U.S. health-care payments will be value-based before 2020 -- that is, in less than three years, a stunning shift. And the industry still expects the government to lead the way; most respondents said the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will drive the payment change, though many also see private health insurers playing an important role.

To be sure, there were differences among subsets of the industry. Pharmaceutical and biotech executives, for example, tended to be more skeptical about value-based payments, with more than 70 percent doubting they would prevail before 2020. These leaders clearly had other issues on their minds; they were the most worried about pricing pressure and political risks, especially in the U.S. Almost three-quarters of American pharma and biotech executives listed the “political environment” as one of the top three drivers of drug pricing pressure, for example, whereas only about 40 percent of European pharma/biotech executives did.

And while the 300 respondents broadly agreed that innovation through new health-care payment and delivery models and scientific breakthroughs can be expected in the years ahead, investors more so than executives also pointed to other forces, including improved diagnostics and personalized medicine, and more transparency in health-care pricing and quality.

Industry leaders also expect to see a lot of dynamism in health care. More than 40 percent of executives said new partnerships will help transform health care, including partnerships with tech companies and other nontraditional competitors. In fact, 80 percent of all respondents said nontraditional competitors will change the industry, either through new partnerships or other means.

Here again, people's views varied depending on their particular business. About 30 percent of respondents in medical devices and health-care services said nontraditional players will transform the industry over the next few years, but only 14 percent of pharma and biotech respondents agreed. More drug and biotech leaders pointed to innovation in key therapeutic areas and scientific breakthroughs. Advances in oncology and central nervous system therapies are most needed medically, they said, and offer the greatest opportunity for innovation and growth. Gene editing, therapeutic vaccines and gene therapy top their list of disruptive technologies.

Against the backdrop of incessant political chatter over repealing and replacing Obamacare, we found an industry poised for dramatic transformation, led by innovation in payment models, science and technology, and supported by new competitors, new partnerships and other strategic transactions.

Our study, in turn, provides guideposts for both government and business leaders on the best path forward in delivering higher-value health care. The money we spend on medicines, for example, should increasingly reflect the higher-value innovations that executives and investors anticipate. And U.S. policymakers must satisfy widespread expectations that they will move toward value-based payments that reflect the benefits of investment in innovation.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

David Gluckman is vice chairman of investment banking and global co-head of health care at Lazard.

Peter R. Orszag is a Bloomberg View columnist. He is a vice chairman of investment banking at Lazard. He was President Barack Obama’s director of the Office of Management and Budget from 2009 to 2010 and the director of the Congressional Budget Office from 2007 to 2008.

To contact the authors of this story: David Gluckman at davidgluckman96@gmail.com, Peter R. Orszag at porszag5@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mary Duenwald at mduenwald@bloomberg.net.

For more columns from Bloomberg View, visit http://www.bloomberg.com/view.