Confusion muddles the health-care market: reform is muting the growth of an otherwise booming sector.

• Author: Reuteman, Rob

ASK A HEALTH-CARE EXECUTIVE FOR HIS CURRENT OUTLOOK on the sector and you'll likely hear how its extraordinary growth prospects are threatened by confusion about reform.

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The controversial Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 was passed to address soaring health-care costs that have crippled employers for decades. But its implementation is challenged by 26 states, including Colorado.

On Aug. 12, a U.S. Court of Appeals struck down one of the law's key provisions--that 38 million uninsured Americans will be required to purchase health insurance by 2014. Earlier this summer, another federal appeals court ruled that the so-called "individual mandate" was indeed constitutional, setting up what most see as an inevitable resolution by the U.S. Supreme Court next year.

"The big obstacle to growth out there is confusion," said Larry Gray, chief executive of The Assist Group, a Lakewood firm that helps companies control their health insurance claims costs.

"You've got a huge federal law being challenged, a 2,200-page bill requiring 60,000 pages of regulations that are not written yet," Gray said. "Things won't be sorted out until next spring or summer when the Supreme Court rules. Until then, hospital groups, insurers, physicians are confused about getting it sorted out. Do I move down this road or that?"

Gray is one of three panelists who'll take part in an Oct. 6 panel discussion titled "Navigating the Opportunities and Pitfalls in Healthcare's Transformation." The panel will be one of four featured during the Association of Corporate Growth's afternoon program, Hidden Gems & Fool's Gold: The Future of Dealmaking in Colorado.

"Any time things become unpredictable for people in the health-care sector, it's a bad thing for the market," said fellow panelist Clay Anselmo, chief executive at Reglera, a Wheat Ridge firm that assists medical device manufacturers in navigating the regulatory process.

"If you don't know what the regulatory process will do, you can't make realistic budget projections, and that slows growth," he added.

Anselmo said he sees "tremendous potential" in the combination of an aging U.S. population of baby boomers combined with significant advances in medical technology.

"But there's been an enhancement in the level of regulation throughout health care, which deters potential investors and makes it more difficult to bring new products to market," he said. "I see huge potential in an environment...