Invest in the Biggest Trend in Health Care Now

If I asked you to name the biggest game-changer in health care right now, you
probably would think of things like personalized medicine, robotic surgery,
high-resolution imaging or breakthrough treatments. They all would be good
answers, as they certainly are changing the game and are a big reason why health
care is such an interesting and profitable area in which to invest. Another
answer that most people don't realize is a change in the way urgent care is
delivered. I'm talking about the shift to what are called "hospitalists."
That might not sound as exciting as a monoclonal antibody that targets cancer
like a smart bomb, but hospitalists are the fastest-growing medical specialty
right now, and the company I'm recommending to you is an innovative leader in
that industry. Hospitalists, if you're not familiar with the term, are doctors
who work at a hospital or other health care facility and manage the care of
patients at the facility. The days of your regular doctor "making rounds"
are pretty well over. The reason, as I'm sure you can guess, is economics.
Managed care has cut payments to physicians, so they make up the shortfall by
seeing as many patients as they can in the office (sometimes too many!), which
doesn't leave time for hospital visits. That's where hospitalists come in.
The term was coined in an article in The New England Journal of Medicine 15
years ago around the time this specialty was coming into being. Since the
mid-1990s, the number of hospitalists has grown nearly 6,000% from 500 to
30,000. In addition to primary care physicians benefiting from the additional
time in the office, the hospitals also have financial incentives to use a
hospitalist system because it gives them tighter control over care management
and the use of hospital resources. Change always is unsettling, and there are
some who are not fans of hospitalists mainly because they feel personal
physicians are less involved with their patients' care at critical times.
There also is a risk that the quality of a patient's care can be muddled with
the involvement of many doctors. When executed well, though, the hospitalist
system has advantages. Since the hospital is their office, hospitalists
sometimes visit patients twice a day, and they are more readily available to
meet with the patients' families, follow up on tests and coordinate care among
specialists. No matter how you feel about hospitalists, the important point for
us as investors is that they are here to stay, and their use should continue to
increase. The best pure play is IPC The Hospitalist Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: IPCM
), which has a fantastic growth record that is likely to continue well into the
future. Heres why: