News: AHA report examines 7 major disruptors entering primary care market

In a new American Hospital Association (AHA) report, the organization examines how large competitors have begun to stake their claim in primary care and used it to expand, placing pressure on traditional providers to keep up with the transforming market. The report cites an analysis indicating the primary care landscape accounts for around $260 billion in annual healthcare spending, and 30% of that market could be owned by non-traditional providers by 2030, HealthLeaders reported.

This group includes seven large retail and tech companies that have entered the healthcare space with a wide range of innovative ideas and programs designed to give the consumer a choice on where to access care, such as direct-to-consumer telehealth and the retail healthcare industry. The report indicated that these disruptors are seeing success thanks to their focus on addressing pain point and gaps in healthcare that traditional, fee-for-service providers have yet to address.

“The nation’s largest retail, payer and tech disruptors once again invested billions of dollars in healthcare in 2022, continuing to build out their visions to transform the field,” the report said. “In the short term, these moves helped the companies grab market share in primary care, concierge medicine, virtual care, in-home medical services and elsewhere.”

Here are the biggest disruptors of 2022 the AHA report focused on:

• Amazon, expanding its pharmacy base with RxPass and possibly purchasing One Medical (pending a review by the United States Federal Trade Commission)
• CVS Health, recently acquiring Oak Street Health and Signify Health and heavily investing in virtual care and digital health
• UnitedHealth Group, pushing for diversification with investments in digital health, care coordination, and remote patient monitoring capabilities, and completing an $8 billion merger with Change Healthcare
• Walgreens Boots Alliance, laying the groundwork for growth with its partnership with primary care provider VillageMD and home care company CareCentrix, and acquiring Summit Health
• Walmart, adding virtual care, a discount drug platform, and an EHR to its established base as the nation’s largest retailer with plans to establish long-term healthcare partnerships
• Apple, aggressively expanding its healthcare platform through devices with the Apple Watch and iPhone to give payers, providers, and researchers new opportunities to connect with the consumer
• Google/Alphabet, investing in technology that helps healthcare organizations to focus on health equity, value-based care, and patient engagement, partnering with health systems to address pain points such radiology support and patient flow

To keep up with those disruptors and fit into an evolving industry, the report said traditional providers need to assess their own ability to innovate and address care gaps and weaknesses. It concluded with four questions every healthcare organization should ask themselves on topics such as transparency and convenient access for patients, partnership opportunities, and leveraging established trust and rapport.

Editor’s note: To read HealthLeaders’ coverage of this story, click here. To access the AHA report, click here.