Besides its hot-button status in the 2008 presidential election, what other issues will shape the healthcare industry in the coming year? Perennial cost drivers remain, but growing technology dictums, prevalence of quality- and performance-based reimbursement models, evolving physician-hospital and physician-patient dynamics and increased ROI expectations for wellness and health coaching are forcing hospitals, health plans and providers to recast business and care delivery processes.

In this special report, "Healthcare Trends & Forecasts in 2008: Performance Expectations for the Healthcare Industry," four key thought leaders deliver a sector-by-sector analysis of emerging trends and their impacts and debate the direction of the industry. In HIN's fourth annual healthcare industry forecast, you'll hear from:

• Peter Kongstvedt, M.D., F.A.C.P., a partner in the Health/Managed Care Consulting Services Practice at Accenture, weighing in on the state of the industry and providing additional commentary from the health plan perspective;
• Joel Diamond, M.D., partner with Diamond, Fera & Associates and chief medical officer at dbMotion Inc., who presents the trends impacting physician groups, especially technology and its potential to enhance care;
• Nathan Kaufman, managing director for Kaufman Strategic Advisors, who presents hospital trends and emerging hospital-physician models; and
• Elizabeth Opland, director of product development and deployment at Gordian Health Solutions, who dissects trends impacting the wellness and health promotion sector, including the promise of positive psychology in health coaching.

Will retail clinics be a passing phase, or the path to improved access to care? Will an emphasis on analytics detract from quality and patient care? Why is everyone talking about—and waiting for—interoperability? And how "driven" are consumers when it comes to changing unhealthy behaviors? In the question-and-answer section, enjoy the informed debate on the importance of health literacy and the "retailing" of healthcare.

This 42-page special report, "Healthcare Trends & Forecasts in 2008: Performance Expectations for the Healthcare Industry," showcases the topics that will continue to consume the healthcare executive, and new challenges that await the industry in 2008.

Table of Contents

• Trends Impacting the Healthcare Industry in 2008 and Beyond
  • Technology and Biologic Agents Greatest Cost Drivers
  • What’s Ahead in Predictive Modeling
  • Pay for Performance Trends Murky
  • Ideas for Organic Growth
  • Trends in Inorganic Growth
  • The Working Uninsured
  • The Uninsured
• Trends Affecting Hospitals: The Social Contract with Physicians is Changing
  • Uncompensated Care an Issue
  • State of the Hospital Industry
  • New Hospital-Physician Dynamics on Horizon
  • Employing Physicians: New Method of Doing Business
  • The Best Value in Healthcare
  • Hospital Imperatives
• Trends Affecting Physician Groups: Using Healthcare to Its Fullest Potential
  • The Promise of Voice Recognition
  • Toward Virtual Physician-Patient Communication
  • How Consumers Will Use Personal Health Records
  • The Impact of Analytics on Quality and Patient Care
  • EMRs Make a Difference in Quality
  • Interoperability Secret to PFP Success
• Emerging Trends in Wellness: Being Proactive, Not Reactive
  • Health as Human Capital
  • Providers as a Key Driver
  • Proactive, Not Reactive
  • Psychology and Behavior Change in Healthcare
  • Focus on Managed Consumerism, Wellness Lifestyle Coaching
  • Data Technology, Web Integration and Wellness
• Q&A: Ask the Experts
  • Healthcare's Percentage of the Gross Domestic Product
  • Impact of Retail Clinics on Healthcare Industry
  • Debating Health Literacy and Consumerism
• Glossary
• For More Information
• About the Authors