Dive Brief:
- Two new reports suggest demand for medical office buildings and ambulatory care centers in 2016 will be at its strongest in years.
- The demand is being fueled by Obamacare, which brought millions of people who previously lacked health insurance into the healthcare system, and the drive to improve population health, Colliers International reports.
- Healthcare consultancy group, Merchant Medicine, also points to both public and private efforts to shift payment toward value-based models, according to Forbes.
Dive Insight:
Colliers said the vacancy rate for medical office buildings was 9.5% in the Q3 2015 and is expected to stay below 10% this year. That compares with 12.7% for traditional offices.
“There is a national trend pushing care to where the patient is located,” Collier's National Director of Healthcare Services Mary Beth Kuzmanovich told Forbes. “Patients who might have gone into the ER will stop into the urgent care center, particularly as they have insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act.”
The push to improve the health of whole communities is also increasing interest in ambulatory care and outpatient services that make it easier for patients to obtain care.
The Obama administration has pegged the number of newly insured individuals at more than 17 million.