A financial executive with Laidlaw & Company, James (Jim) Ahern pursues capital-raising strategies in private and public healthcare companies. Over the past seven years, he has expanded Laidlaw into an internationally recognized investment bank with offices on two continents. James Ahern, who also goes by Jimmy, has extensive knowledge of the healthcare industry and closely follows trends in the sector.
A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report brought focus to an emerging trend of single-digit growth in the employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) market. PwC projections point to a 6.5 percent total annual cost growth in 2018 for treating patients within the ESI market, an increase which it describes as marking an end to an era of double-digit growth and volatile cost swings. The report notes that further cost reductions will be essential to America’s economic well being, as spending on healthcare outpaces the economy as a whole.
PwC recommends for health businesses and organizations to optimize their rate of utilization and price paid for services through revised contract arrangements with providers, while ensuring that costs do not simply shift to employees.
