The healthcare landscape is trending toward consolidation amid small practices, and leaders should stay mindful about how the benefits of those moves will support patients, Matthew Lavery, MD, said.
Dr. Lavery, president of Indianapolis-based OrthoIndy, discussed the healthcare trends he's watching in 2025.
Note: This conversation was lightly edited for clarity.
Question: What orthopedic trends that you're following closest?
Dr. Matthew Lavery: One of the things I'm continuing to monitor really closely is the sense that we're moving more towards site neutral payments and orthopedics. I think it's a continued challenge for everybody. I think it may be a larger challenge for hospitals that have separate certifications and legal requirements to maintain their status as hospitals.There may be some benefits to those people who are in the ASC world, and there may be some challenges that people who are in the hospital world face, and currently with us structured as a hospital, that's that's something we have to keep our eye on really closely. So we'll continue to follow and monitor that. The things that don't ever change are focused on providing excellent patient care. What is the experience a person wants from start to finish?
The other big trend that we all follow is consolidation in healthcare. I think [OrthoIndianapolis is] an example of trying to find a way to make consolidation and increased size a net benefit to the people we serve. I think there are always questions in the mind of the general public as to whether consolidation is beneficial, but it's the reality of the world we live in. In healthcare, if you look around, you really don't see a lot of private practices in existence anymore. They have to compete with large health systems who have a little bit of a different playing field. They have a little bit of a running head start in some ways, whether it's their tax advantage status or whether it's their size. When they go to negotiate contracts with payers, that's very different from small-to-midsize practices. I'll certainly be watching for the benefits of that consolidation to the end user, and how we can make sure that we're trying to capitalize on as many of those benefits as possible. If we're growing in size we want to make OrthoIndiana a more robust institution that long term, can continue to provide a different perspective and opportunity for patients versus just going to a large system. Being physician-owned, we all have a lot of skin in the game, because we want the place we work to be the type of place that our family members and friends would want to come to.