It’s no secret that the baby boomers are aging, and the healthcare industry at-large is preparing for the onslaught as more and more treatments and health services are required for their care.

At the same time, healthcare reform is painting an increasingly more complicated picture for health systems, while now-private physicians are expected to begin a migration back toward being hospital-employed.

The Urban Land Institute recently published a new report, The Outlook for Health Care, in which it, like many others, projected that these shifts will propel a variety of new needs on the healthcare landscape, such as a large growth (an expected hike of 19% by 2019) in medical office buildings, for example.

In the report, author and economist Gary Shilling describes additional drivers for the growing demand for more healthcare facilities, including technology changes necessitating retrofits or new development, as well as the shift toward more outpatient centers, to name a couple.

Here is a more complete picture of what is presented by Shiller in the report and what’s likely going to be influencing healthcare construction for some time to come:
• People over 65 have three times as many office visits per year as those under 45. The oldest of the baby boomers are now turning 65 and the youngest will be 65 in 2029, substantially raising Medicare and Medicaid expenses.
• Technology advances are requiring “smarter” medical buildings, either new or upgraded, which will be financed largely by private investments.
• Thirty-two million more Americans will be covered by health insurance by 2019, an increase of 11%.
• Cost control pressures from the government and employers will benefit large, profitable hospital systems with large campuses and expanding satellite facilities. Renewed growth in cheaper outpatient surgical and other facilities will also result from an emphasis on cost containment.
• More physicians will be employed by hospitals than will be operating private practices, due primarily to increasingly cumbersome record-keeping requirements, cost containment measures, and opportunities for higher salaries. The need for individual physician offices will decline as demand grows for larger facilities accommodating numerous hospital-employed physicians.
• Medical office building demand is forecast to expand by 19% by 2019, 11% of which is related to the impact of the new law, and the remainder due to population growth and demographics.

Go here to read The Outlook for Health Care report in full. Does the report ring true? What demands are you starting to hear from customers?