What goes around, comes around. It was routine in the 1950’s for doctors to make house calls and deliver a high level of service to their patients. Well, here we are in 2021, and we might be going back in time, not just to deliver better services but to cut costs from a bloated healthcare system. The Home Care Providers industry is among the fastest growing healthcare industries in the United States. Home care saves patients billions of dollars every year by treating them in their own homes instead of at hospitals. An aging population, the prevalence of chronic diseases, growing physician acceptance of home care, medical advancements and a movement toward cost-efficient treatment options from public and private payers have all fostered industry revenue growth. Industry revenue, according to IBISWorld, has grown at an annualized rate of 2.2% to $96.9 billion over the past five years.
Strong and steady revenue growth is expected for this industry over the next five years to 2025 as a result of an aging population, increasing interest in home healthcare and expanded access to Medicare and Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The aging population will likely continue to foster revenue growth because this baby boomer demographic not only requires more healthcare services compared with other age groups, but it also increasingly prefers home care. Payers are expected to progressively shift to home care because it is more affordable than inpatient hospital and nursing home care.
Here are three trends that could spark new startups or have small business potential:
Aging in the home. There’s no place like home. A 2018 AARP survey of adults shows that 3 out of 4 adults age 50 and older want to stay in their homes and communities as they age. Baby Boomers are driving a significant and lasting shift in the age distribution of our country. Ten thousand Baby Boomers turn 65 years old every day, and by 2030, 18% of the U.S. population will be age 65 or older (compared to 13% today). This will create a growing appetite for solutions that enable older adults to age in place. The U.S. home care market is expected to grow from $100B in 2016 to $225B by 2024. As entrepreneurs, there may be a unique opportunity for technology to close the health care gap and actually provide better services.
The doctor is coming to you. House calls from doctors haven’t been the norm for quite some time. That is going to change due to a number of well-funded startups like Heal and Ready. Heal offers house calls with doctors for primary care, along with video appointments and digital monitoring services. But Los Angeles-based startup Heal is looking to bring at-home care to more people with its latest round of funding. The company raised $100 million in July, 2020 for its Series D round from health insurance giant Humana and that brings the total amount of capital raised since inception to $164 million. Ready, an on-demand health care startup that delivers home and community-based services, has raised $54 million in Series C funding. Among the investors in its latest funding round: GV, the venture capital arm of Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOGL), the parent company of Google.
Taking your call. Telemedicine is the very epitome of technology-driven healthcare and serves as a literal lifeline for thousands if not millions of people who live in rural areas and do not have access to proper medical facilities. The current pandemic suggests that remote patients won’t be the only ones who benefit from telemedicine. An increasing number of patients who live in urban areas have also begun to take notice of this rapidly growing industry. This is because many people are interested in the convenience that telemedicine provides. Frankly, people don’t have the time nor patience to sit around in a waiting room anymore. Telemedicine offers prompt treatment in the comfort of their homes at the press of a button. According to Fortune Business Insights, the global telemedicine market is projected to grow from $79.79 billion in 2020 to $396.76 billion in 2027 at a CAGR of 25.8%. That is rocket ship growth.
Source: Forbes| April 5, 2021