LBMC, one of the Southeast’s largest accounting and business consulting firms, has officially announced key healthcare trends that will shape the industry’s trajectory in 2025.
According to certain reports, these trends go on to touch upon a wide spectrum of things, including AI’s expanding role in diagnostics, an anticipated surge in mergers and acquisitions, and the increasing pressure on healthcare organizations to integrate technology, while simultaneously safeguarding sensitive data.
We will begin by expanding on AI's expanding role in personalized care and diagnostics to discuss these trends on a slightly deeper level. You can anticipate AI-driven technologies that will be well-equipped to significantly enhance diagnostics, individualized treatment plans, and healthcare procedures here. The healthcare sector should also be able to improve decision-making, efficiency, and predictive analytics with AI-assisted imaging. Along with that is an effort to transform administrative tasks and responsibilities by utilizing automation. LBMC predicts that mergers and acquisitions will become the next trend in 2025. As businesses seek scale, data integration, and new care models, digital health, biotech, and provider groups are seeing more M&A activity than ever before. Having said that, healthcare service consolidations backed by private equity will continue to be closely monitored. Then, there we have substantial movement projected for GLP-1s, SGLT-2s, as well as consumer-focused healthcare. So far, even with all their advantages, these medications have struggled against worries in the context of supply shortages, insurance coverage, and price. However, the same is likely to happen with new access models and weight-loss platforms that emphasize makeup and appearance more. This means, throughout the course of 2025, access and costs will be impacted by coverage for these from all payors, including the government.
“The anticipated resurgence in healthcare M&A for 2025 is driven by declining interest rates, significant PE investor ‘dry powder,’ and a more lenient regulatory environment, paving the way for transformative deals that could redefine patient care and industry standards,” said Lisa Nix, LBMC Shareholder and Practice Leader, Transaction Advisory Services.
The growing popularity of multi-function decision support tools, which include solutions for text, imaging, genomic data, and patient history, as well as those aimed at improving diagnostic capability and efficiency, is an additional point worth mentioning. Joining that would be the expected effects of new administration on healthcare policy. The stated effects translate to key discussions being held on Medicare and Medicaid policy, AI regulation, and medication pricing negotiations. In addition, leaders are observing how CMS, HHS, and FTC decisions will affect healthcare economics. Additionally, an AI integration is planned to address staffing issues and ongoing workforce issues. You have to understand that scheduling software powered by AI, clinical documentation tools, and virtual assistants are already in use, with nursing, radiology, and primary care likely to follow. In addition, the report from LBMC predicts that healthcare cybersecurity will gain prominence as AI adoption rises and businesses continue their digital transformations. “With growing reliance on AI, data architecture is changing, data repositories are multiplying, new identities are being created, and our overall threat surface is expanding. Van Steel, LBMC Shareholder and Healthcare Cybersecurity Leader, stated, "To harness AI's potential while also protecting critical data, healthcare organizations must embed cybersecurity into digital transformation efforts." Turning our attention towards some key considerations that the healthcare industry will have to make moving forward, they include risk and opportunities related to AI, This means that healthcare data must be protected by GenAI policies, and at the same time, vendors must disclose AI’s role in handling PHI and ensure HIPAA compliance.
Beyond that, contracts with suppliers are taken into consideration. Even though AI is now used in many SaaS systems, contracts signed before the end of 2022 may not protect AI. As a result, leaders must reconsider agreements regarding accountability. Founded in 1984, LBMC’s rise up the ranks stems from deploying advanced business intelligence and AI technologies to drive growth, efficiency, and strategic insights. The company’s present stature can be gauged once you consider its clientele stretches across a wide horizon, covering privately-owned and private-equity-backed middle market companies across healthcare, manufacturing/distribution, real estate, and technology spaces.
