metaMe Health was featured in a blog article on 4sighthealth.com entitled “Regulatory Chess: Positioning for Competitive Advantage,” written by David W. Johnson. You can read the article here and we’ve also included the first page below.
To entrepreneurs, regulation is the enemy of innovation. That’s especially true in healthcare. Experts agree that healthcare is one of the most, if not the most regulated industry in the U.S. That makes the job of healthcare entrepreneurs even more challenging.
- The American Hospital Association says hospitals, health systems and post-acute care providers have to comply with 629 distinct sets of federal regulatory requirements at an annual cost of $39 billion. (1)
- Eighty-six percent of 426 medical group practices surveyed by the Medical Group Management Association say that their overall regulatory burden has increased over the past 12 months. (2)
- Fifty-two percent of 100 health system executives surveyed by H2C and the Health Management Academy cite the regulatory environment as their pharmacy department’s biggest challenge. (3)
Despite all the regulatory barbed wire, healthcare entrepreneurs are rushing right at it. Healthcare start-ups attracted a record $8.1 billion in venture capital in 2018, according to Rock Health, the San Francisco-based digital health venture capital firm. (4) That’s 42 percent more than the past record of $5.7 billion a year earlier.
Whether it’s naiveté or a blind spot or a belief that their innovation will transcend regulatory oversight and simply float over the Federal Register, I’m not sure.