Healthcare is now the world’s largest industry and it has contributed significantly to improving quality of life and extending life expectancy. But these societal gains have brought significant economic challenges. Over the past few decades, the annual growth in healthcare costs has exceeded GDP growth by two percentage points in most OECD countries—presenting a critical financing problem for the payor, be it the state or private insurance holders. And while recent progress has been significant, work remains to improve the quality of medical treatment and integrated care programs.
In France, a number of factors have converged to test the healthcare system’s admission and treatment capacities. These include the increasingly technological nature of healthcare; the aging population and related rise in chronic illnesses; ever-increasing demands by patients for better care and treatment; and the need to guarantee equal access to care in all areas of the country. Given these significant challenges within the context of budget tightening, healthcare financing capacity is under unprecedented pressure. In short, the healthcare system is forced to make progress on two tracks: better service quality and greater economic efficiency.
Our Healthcare Systems & Services Practice supports the industry’s main players: national and regional healthcare agencies, state health insurance, insurers, mutual insurance companies, hospitals and academic research centers, clinics, and other healthcare providers. We counsel these clients on all the key strategic, organization, and operations issues that will shape the healthcare landscape over the decades to come. These include analyzing the performance of the system as a whole and of the integrated care programs in particular; conceiving and conducting national-system performance improvement strategies; developing operational strategies and conducting transformations for public and private hospitals; improving medical treatment quality and patient service; and raising the international profile of French research and healthcare institutions.