By Healthcare Facilities Today

New ambulatory care and outpatient clinics are springing up as hospitals are trying to become more specialized and efficient. The private practice is all but disappearing as doctors bogged down by new paperwork join group practices. And hospital groups are scrambling for the millions of people now required to be insured under the ACA, according to an article on the Commercial Observer website.

New York City now has one of the largest not-for-profit health systems in the country, with the Mount Sinai and Continuum merger, which will combine Mount Sinai’s academic specializations with Continuum’s community hospitals.

All these shifts are  “the tip of the iceberg,” said Michael Berne, who heads Lee & Associates’ senior housing arm. “I think we are going to see more and more mergers and consolidations, and it wouldn’t surprise me if hospitals on Long Island and northern New Jersey start to merge with those in Manhattan.”

Also, because the number of patients older than 65 is expected to at least double over the next two decades, developers are now considering the value in this growing segment of the population, which will turn a billion-dollar industry into a trillion-dollar one.

Read the article.