It's the Woodstock festival of the healthcare business community.
The 33rd annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference is this week in San Francisco, attracting thousands of executives, techies, investors and analysts.
Leaders from more than 400 hospitals, insurers, pharmaceutical companies, devicemakers, technology firms and provider groups will share insights on what's to come in 2015.
The U.S. Supreme Court's King v. Burwell case, Medicaid expansion, mergers and acquisitions and other issues are expected to spur lots of discussion. “2015 is a fairly uncertain year in terms of political and regulatory outlook,” said Ana Gupte, a managing director at Leerink Partners who covers healthcare companies.
It's expected that many of the presenting healthcare leaders will delve into how Obamacare is affecting them from an earnings perspective and whether they will explore consolidation moves.
While several insurers already have offered financial projections for 2015, hospital chains such as Tenet Healthcare Corp. and Community Health Systems have provided little disclosure thus far, making them a must-watch, Gupte said. Insurers and hospitals also are likely to discuss how the severe flu season has affected their business.
Big names pepper the speaker list, including Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, and Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase.
