Counterpoint

The most lucrative patients in healthcare are moving

Written by Hal Andrews | May 20, 2022

Commercially-insured adults ages 45-64 are migrating, what does this mean for health systems across the country?

 Historically, the most lucrative demographic for health systems has been patients ages 45-64 because these consumers are commercially insured and need more medical care than younger age cohorts. However, just like many other Americans over the last two years, people ages 45-64 are migrating to other areas of the country.

This means that some health systems are about to lose a sizable chunk of their revenue as commercially-insured adults move elsewhere - revenue that they previously relied on to subsidize the losses from caring for Medicaid, Medicare, and charity patients.

Healthcare is a negative-sum game.

The total addressable market is growing smaller by the day and the only way for a health system to maintain market share is to take it from a competitor. So what now?

As patients continue to migrate from larger cities to smaller markets across the United States, health systems must learn to adapt in order to survive and thrive in their changing market.

How do you plan to maintain your share of the market amid the migration of commercially-insured patients?