Mike Belew
Mike Belew, executive vice president of development at CBC Real Estate Group, focuses primarily on the development of commercial assets across the Midwest. With more than 15 years of real estate experience, he's been responsible for the development of more than $150 million in real estate projects, mainly in the retail and healthcare sectors. On a national scale, he's been involved primarily in the development and acquisition of healthcare assets.
Belew will be an honored speaker at MetroWireMedia's 2016 Healthcare Summit on November 9. In anticipation of the panel discussion, we sneaked a peek into Mike's opinions of the topics and trends in healthcare and development.
Do you see any new trends surfacing in healthcare for 2017?
MIKE BELEW: "Physician practices are starting to get more active or aggressive in re-positioning themselves for the future. Many are either looking to acquire other physician practices to create scale or exploring joint venture opportunities that enable them to create a new service line or business venture. A lot of primary care groups are looking at expanding into new service lines to become more like multi-specialty groups.
"We also expect to see continued growth in the delivery of healthcare in outpatient facilities that are smaller, more efficient settings. The trend toward standalone outpatient clinics, micro hospitals and the resurgence of 'physician-led hospitals' are definitely increasing."
What challenges are you facing as we approach 2017?
MB: "There is a lot of uncertainty around the outcome of the presidential election. Several healthcare systems and physician practices have taken a “wait and see” approach to gauge the impact the election will have on their businesses and the industry. A new president will attempt to revise the Affordable Care Act in some fashion, and no one has a clear idea of what a post-election revamped healthcare system might look like or what the potential short- and long-term impact will be.
"Continued pressure on reimbursement levels is still a challenge for acute care providers."
What is your outlook for the healthcare economy for 2017 through the next few years in your opinion?
MB: "Steady but challenging. Hospitals will look to continue to expand certain service lines where they feel they can compete, but may also retrench other services where they may not be as competitive and re-allocate those capital resources to other service lines.
"Physician practices will continue to evaluate whether to: sell the practice to a hospital, form a joint venture with a complementary physician practice, grow the practice by recruiting new physicians, or keep status quo in place and grind it out."
Is there anything you or your firm is looking forward to?
MB: "Continued focus on physician practices. Hospital systems are always looking for ways to work with independent physician practices in some manner and independent practices are busy on many fronts trying to find avenues to stay independent. Whether they attempt to grow or just survive, the physician practice piece of the healthcare industry is always a very active sector for CBC."
Interested in hearing more from Mike? See more details and register to attend our 2016 Healthcare Summit, which takes place next week! Sponsorship opportunities also remain; Find more information here.