The Wisdom of the Blogs

By THCBist

Have a prediction for 2016?

Send them in. There’s still time.

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B.S. writes:

1. ICD-10 will cause an explosion in fraudulent and abusive medical bills during a messy implementation

2. Health Catalyst will file for an IPO and IBM will preemptively buy them

3. Revenue Cycle Management companies, in the face of reimbursement changes, will attempt to morph into analytics companies.

4. One or both of the mega health plan mergers will not be approved due to market concentration concern.

5. Centene/Health Net merger will get done and Centene’s stock will hit a post split $100 by year end 2016.

6. United Healthcare will lose to Humana and Health Net for the new TriCare contract as three regions are reduced to two- UHC will lose its appeal”

IndustryYoda writes

“Uncertainty about the outcome of the 2016 election will lead to increasing fear and gridlock as large healthcare organizations elect to play a wait and see game. GOP attacks on the Affordable Care Act will spook many. Doc morale will continue to spiral as a consequence. If the Republicans win the White House, the shit is going to seriously hit the fan …

ICD-10 will (flip a coin) either be delayed yet again in a last minute reversal by red-faced administration officials or be pushed through incompetently, causing stress and economic chaos among providers. Those who prepared will survive. Those who did not will feel extreme pain. The real winner? The consultants.

At least one ineptly-run electronic health record vendor will flame out spectacularly (note: this is not the company mentioned above), with dire consequences for customers. Citing obscure contractual language, the vendor will attempt to monetize customer data in various sleazy ways. Outrage and vows of official action will follow in Washington but no substantive action will be taken.”

Salesforce.com will Eat the World writes:

“You want predictions? Okay. Fine. Here’s my totally-insane world-changing-prediction-that-could-change everything. Salesforce will win over at least one huge healthcare name, causing a major freakout among vendors. Several will see the writing on the wall and announce plans to launch compatible services. Will it actually happen? Who knows. Not a fan of Salesforce, but I almost hope it does. “