Capital One survey: M&A, new services to drive 2017

Ready for more market consolidation? This year’s growth across the industry will be fueled by more mergers, acquisitions and new business lines, according to Capital One Healthcare’s annual survey of healthcare executive leaders.

The survey, which tapped the insights of 450 healthcare executives, showed that mergers and acquisitions are expected to lead the corporate growth incentives again this year, although the M&A activities may not be quite as busy as last year.

New business lines and service segments are on the rise, as 31 percent of respondents indicated to launch new segments in 2017—almost double the amount on last year’s survey.

Got capital? Nearly half of those surveyed said they expected their capital needs to increase in 2017, compared to 25 percent who said so in 2016.

“With M&A and a strong new business segment outlook, executives are clearly keeping all avenues of growth on the table,” said Al Aria, senior managing director at Capital One Healthcare, in a corporate release.

Yet some corporate growth initiatives may be in limbo for now, waiting to see how the incoming presidential administration will approach the Affordable Care Act. Nearly 60 percent of survey respondents named the potential changes to the ACA as their top concern, up 26 percent since last year.

Pamela Tabar

Pamela Tabar was editor-in-chief of I Advance Senior Care from 2013-2018. She has worked as a writer and editor for healthcare business media since 1998, including as News Editor of Healthcare Informatics. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Kent State University and a master’s degree in English from the University of York, England.