Aegis Health Group CEO: Dramatic changes ahead for health insurance industry

Hold on to your seats and gear up for the most dramatic changes the health insurance industry has faced yet, says Aegis Health Group CEO Phil Suiter, in an interview with The Tennessean. 

Suiter spoke with Tennessean reporter Shelley DuBois about the growing power of healthcare consumers and why insurance companies will look "radically different" in the future.

"I think you may see mergers between hospitals and insurance companies," Suiter says. "Hospitals are now trying to underwrite risk, which they don't know much about. One thing that insurers do know is how to underwrite risk. It wouldn't surprise me to see a melding of those."

Suiter also predicts fewer large health insurance companies in the future, with smaller companies dominating the market.

Insurers can attribute much of this change to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Suiter says.

The ACA has promoted the use of electronic medical records, but it hasn't entirely determined how to provide care, he notes.

"I think the biggest piece in the escalation of what we're seeing in healthcare is the cost. I think the industry is finally realizing we can't keep doing it the same way we've been doing it or we're going to bankrupt everybody," Suiter says.

Other health insurance CEOs predict change, as well. Accountable care organizations will take hold across the country, blurring the line between healthcare insurers and providers so that payers as we know them may not exist a decade from now, FierceHealthPayer previously reported. As many as 50 percent of delivery systems reported they will be in the insurance business in the coming years.

To learn more:
-read The Tennessean article

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